


The runaway

by FuckinFaeFolkFam



Category: Vikings (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Drug Addiction, Drug Use, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Ivar (Vikings) Being an Asshole, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Past Abuse, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:55:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 15
Words: 33,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24073306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FuckinFaeFolkFam/pseuds/FuckinFaeFolkFam
Summary: Anastasia Romanov comes from Russian royalty.But she soon sees that the lothbrooks hold no loyalty for her.After running away to another crime syndicate under the lothbrooks noses she will have to figure out whether to keep her new identity of "V", or forgive the family she used to have.
Relationships: Hvitserk (Vikings)/Original Female Character(s), Ivar (Vikings)/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 12





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first time writing any sort of fan fiction, any and all comments and criticism is welcome.   
> And please leave a comment if you enjoy it!

Prologue 

She kissed her son's forehead as he silently huffed out a breath, exhausted from their long flight from the states back to Denmark. She lightly pet his dark hair and pulled the fluffy blanket higher up on his small body, and with a quick kiss to his hair left him to sleep in peace. 

She walked into the small kitchenette and grabbed all of the tiny liquor bottles kept in the mini fridge, knowing she would need it. It's been almost 4 years since she's been back in Denmark, and it brought back a lot of memories that she would rather not remember. Ragnar and his son's- the bane of her existence. She cracked the first bottle open and shot it down. The liquid burned the back of her throat and she could smell the alcohol in her nose with every outward breath. 

She tossed her long hair over a shoulder and huffed a sarcastic laugh to herself, last time she was here her head was bald, thanks to ragnar. She shot another bottle down and grabbed at her suitcase, pulling out a small locked box. Undoing the combination she opened it and pulled out a stack of photos from before she left. Photos of her and aslaug, ragnar, all of the son's, floki and Helga, even a few with athelstan and Judith before they left for England. As she shuffled through the photos she grabbed a cigarette and walked onto the balcony, continuing her shuffling and reminiscing. 

She so wished things could be different, that she wasn't the way she was, did the things she did, she wished most of all that Ragnar hadn't done what he did. Maybe if he never met Yidu they would've never been in this situation, maybe if she found the medication for her sex addiction as a teen it wouldn't have happened, maybe, just maybe - she could've had the family she so wished for as a kid. 

She remembered back on her family, her mom and father royalty to the Rus, her father abusing her, her cousin who couldn't seem to leave her alone. She remembered how many times she'd run away to the Lothrbrook estate and hid away in the boy's tree houses, how Aslaug was the first to figure out her fathers despicable taste for her age group, and how her mother would stand by and allow it. Aslaug was the only good thing about that family to her - she even would buy a burner phone every now and then and check up on her for a few minutes, in secret of course. 

Sighing, she grabbed another bottle and drank it down quickly. She hated remembering, and how being here she's forced to not only remember, but figure out a back up plan for if she ran into them - and inevitably she would. After her mother died ragnar threatened her father, he had dug up enough dirt to put him out of commission completely and have 50 to life locked up - hard being a mob boss from behind bars. She remembered fondly the room Aslaug had designed for her, pristine white furniture, soft blue walls, grey comforter and decor - a haven for her to not worry about an unwelcome visitor slithering into her bed. 

She remembered how terrible highschool was, and how ragnar had her run his drugs to the other kids, the colleges, how she had been to juvy at least 3 times before she was 17. About the time ragnar had her selling his drugs was also the same time her addiction started. She started fucking everything with a heart beat, including all of the son's. That was something she did remember fondly as well, sex with the ragnarssons was always amazing, sigurd had found his precious blaeja in highschool so that one was short lived, but the rest continued for a long time, almost nightly. They would get high and fuck till the sun came up, except ivar. Sweet ivar, he wasn't nearly as adventurous upfront as his brothers were, but behind closed doors that boy was an animal - her animal. 

Anastasia was pretty sure she was the reason for hvitserk and ubbes love of sharing, and a huge part of ivars trust issues, but it couldn't be helped. She loved ivar but her nymphomania made being monogamous an impossibility at the time, and it burned at poor ivars heart. At one point ana wanted to marry ivar, to try to be monogamous with him, she was devoted in mind and it would only be fair to be devoted in body as well, but of course ragnar had to fuck it all up. 

Anna's drug addiction didn't go unnoticed by the family, and they assumed the sex was just linked to the drugs, but they were never sure how to help and keep it out of the public eye. And eventually ragnar's own addiction started to take a toll on him. Ragnar and ana had gone to Yidu, their dealer on that fateful night, she had pulled ragnar aside and they whispered for a while. Turns out the plan after that was to pimp her out for yidu in exchange for the drugs. 

Ana let out a shaky sigh while staring at the photo of ragnar, taking another bottle and chugging it down quickly. She remembered all the things that happened to her, all of the men, all of the excuses ragnar gave to Aslaug and the boys for the late nights away or the fact that they all saw her slowly crumbling apart. She was heartbroken, thinking her father figure that saved her ended up doing the same things to her. 

Her final straw was the night that yidu allowed one of the men to messily shave her head. Ragnar had taken her home and shaved it completely down instead of opting to leave the random tufts of long hair and half ass lines of buzzed hair. She remembered screaming at ragnar about how she was going to ruin him- her biggest mistake. She thought about the note she left for ivar, and the hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash she stole - and she left with nothing else like a true thief in the night. 

Anna stubbed out her cigarette on the photo, bringing ragnars face to a quick flame. She thanked the Lord for Harald and Halfdan, the murder brothers she's heard the lothbrooks talk of for many years. She had met them a few times as a kid but never for longer than a few minutes in passing. She had run as fast as she could to the brothers club "vestifold" in their territory. She threw him the bag and explained everything, and how she knew they wanted the kattegat district and that she would help them - all the info she could possibly give she was more than willing to give to them for protection. 

Harald and Halfdan ended up being her knights in shining armour, they became as close and she could allow her broken heart to let them, they had sent her to the state's to take over their business ventures there, fake I.D. new start, all of it. After she had left the country she had seen that ragnar had put a bounty on her head, and that in return Harald had faked her death. Fairly gruesome at that, a car wreck that left the body burned to a crisp, the only identification was dental records which Harald had taken care of to match to your own.

After that her life became easier. Although she found out she was pregnant shortly after, things were almost perfect. She got therapy, medications, even a degree in business management which helped her help Harald and Halfdan. They gave her the name Valarie, a young woman from France, and Valarie took over the state's with an iron fist. The northmen chapters in the state's eventually were all headed by her, and she took over every city that she possibly could. The northmen she met all ended up coining her as "valkyrie". And then that name eventually got shortened to just "V", most people didn't even know she was a woman or had no less seen her in person. She ran everything via proxy or behind closed doors.

Everything was dandy up until FUCKIN Halfdan. He wanted to work with Bjorn, and that would've been fine if she didn't fucking get promoted. Ana had begged and begged to stay in charge of the state's, but Harald insisted that she was the only one he would trust as his new right hand. And now she was in this predicament. Back in fucking Denmark, to work in plain sight and hope she was never noticed. 

Ana would admit she looked drastically different, the small lithe body she had was gone, traded in for a healthy body that was matured from having her son. Her hair back to her natural red instead of the black she had dyed it. And she rarely wore makeup anymore, remembering the god awful black racoon-esque Smokey eyes she often wore in highschool. The only thing she worried about was the I on her ring finger. Sure she was covered in tattoos now, but her and ivar had tattooed each other in highschool after a coke filled love confession to each other. She had an I and he had an A.

She lit another cigarette and threw the stack of photos on the floor. It was easily 3am by now and she was sad and drunk. Staring at her finger that had a ring over the tattoo. She looked up at the moon and wondered if ivar stared at it too and thought of her


	2. Memories

Chapter 1 - memories

Ivar couldn't sleep. He woke up to his legs giving him a dull ache that was worse than usual. He brushed his long hair out of his face and sar up on his elbows with a groan. He looked over to the blonde in his bed next to him, still sound asleep. He watched the small rise and fall of her side as she breathed. Another groan escaped his lips as he rubbed his face, adjusting his legs so he could get out of bed without waking Freydis. 

He stood up, and just as quickly fell back onto the bed, his legs hurting much more than before. He heard a small huff from the body next to him. More carefully this time he stands again, looking over his shoulder as he painfully limped towards the door to his room. He slowly opened the door, avoiding a creek or anything to draw attention to him. Once the door was opened enough he hobbled through and just as quietly shut the door, slowly turning to knob to avoid the clicking of the door on the frame or the click of the metal from waking up his goddess. 

He as silently as he could shuffled down the hallway, the soft thud of his feet dampened by his pajama pants. The hallway was illuminated by the soft moon light that filtered between the slightly open curtains. Every now and then when he would wake in pain, and scurry to the kitchen cabinets like a crab in the moonlight, he would remember the many nights he would catch Ana also sneaking out of her room. As he continued to the kitchen he reminisced on the time when she was alive. He had found Freydis, but his heart still seized up when he remembered her. He opened the cabinet and pulled out the bottle of pills, taking a glass from the adjacent one. Filling the cup with water from the tap, he quickly pooped the pulls into his mouth and chomped them quickly before downing the water to rid the taste. 

He let out a breath and walked out of the kitchen, in a different direction than his room. The quiet thud of his feet making their way to the back patio. Ivar looked towards the glass doors and saw someone else outside sitting in the lawn furniture, basking in the moonlight. The figure was illuminated enough that he could see it was his brother Hvitserk. Ivar slid the door open and stepped out, his brother looking half heartedly over his shoulder at him. Ivar sat down next to him with a slight grunt and ran his hands over his face and through his hair, smoothing his dark locks away from his face. He looked over and his brother who was staring down at a framed photo. 

"You can't sleep either?" Hvitserk scoffed quietly, not wanting to taint the silence he had already been accustomed to. 

"My legs woke me up" ivar softly said back, looking at the frame in his brothers hands. 

Hvitserk looked over and his green eyes met ivars blue one, silently reaffirming that he is in fact looking at what he thinks he is.

The photo was of Ana, and the brothers back when they were in highschool. God, she had to have been 16 in the photo, she was still able to smile that easy smile she had at the time before she seemed to have completely crumbled apart like a sand castle left to the waves. 

"I still think about her - a lot." Hvitserk said softly, coming out as if he didn't want anyone to hear him say it. 

"Me too" ivar said, just as softly.

Reaching past his brother, ivar grabbed Hvitserk pack of cigarettes and lighter, quickly pulling one out and lighting it. 

Taking a long smooth drag from his cigarette, ivar looked to the photo again. He exhaled, which doubled as almost a sigh. He hated to reminisce about her but he couldn't help it, be didn't think any of the family could stop missing her. It had been almost 4 years since Ana had died, his family took care of all of her funeral arrangements, they ended up doing a closed casket, but he and his family had seen your body after it had been identified. He couldn't recognise a single feature on her, she was undeniably seared and scorched and the memory haunted him for many many nights. It took ivar years to remember Ana as when she was alive and not the charred corpse. 

"What do you think happened" Hvitserk said, reaching for the pack and lighting his own cigarette.

"Between her and dad I mean"

Ivar took another hit of his cigarette and thought about it. He remembers the longer that his dad would take her out, and the more time she spent out with him, the worse she seemed to get. Her mental health declined, her drug use went to an all time high - ivar found her with a needle in her arm too nodded out to remove it on multiple occasions and almost every time he would see her she seemed like she was somewhere else.

"I don't know….. dad would never talk about it" ivar replied to his brother after a while. 

"You think she was fucking him?" Hvitserk asked.

"Never" ivar scoffed.

Ana had never said it out loud but he knew that over time, and especially when ragnar started to take her out for unknown amounts of time, that she started to hate him. Things had become very tense between her and ragnar after the second time she went to juvenile hall and she seemed to only talk to him when it involved the family business. 

Hvitserk sighed and exhaled the smoke he was holding in. 

"It would kill me if she was with him. I know she had her problems.." Hvitserk paused, you fucked anybody you could like your life depended on an orgasm - "but we loved her - You, me, ubbe, no matter what she was our girl and we were a team. We were all inseparable, it would kill me to think she's betray us and mor like that." Hvitserk finished. 

"Nothing we can do about it now, she's dead" ivar scoffed, louder than he meant to. 

He inhaled the last of his cigarette and stubbed it into the ash tray. He could never keep his cool when it came to her, even as children. And he hated that he was still sad over her, so the best thing he could do was get mad over her. He heard Hvitserk sigh as he walked away, his brother still clutching the picture frame like it might disappear if he let up his grip. Ivar walked off, no longer feeling the pain in his legs. He quietly made his way back to his room and shut the door behind him quietly, trying not to wake his new heart, the replacement for you.

He stared at Freydis's sleeping form, her blonde hair fanned out over the pillow and her body cuddled into the plush red comforter. She was beautiful, his goddess he always called her, but she wasn't Ana, she would never be Ana. For all of the heartache that girl had put him through he still looked for her in everything and everybody around him. He silently made his way and grabbed her phone, clicking it open. Another message from "O". 

Ivar had given up on the idea of women not fucking around behind his back after Ana had died. Everyone around him cheated, and he wondered if it was a part of the gene pool; his mother, his father, hvitserk, ubbe, bjorn, margarethe, torvi, everyone he had ever known. It stopped surprising him when he started to notice his beautiful Freydis getting random texts and calls and her halfass explanations that never held up. He just stopped asking, stopped caring. 

He put Freydis's phone back on the night stand and walked to his side of the bed and sat down. He opened up the drawer to his night stand slowly, avoiding waking the blonde with the noise from the wood slowly sliding against itself. He pulled out a box with a lock on it. He quickly put in the combination - 4.12.15 - Anastasia's death date. He opened the smaller box, it was fill of old photos, love notes, movie tickets stubs, even a pair of panties and other little odds and ends he couldn't bare to part with after her death. He pulled out a piece of paper. Ana had wrote it for him the night she disappeared, with all of his fathers cash that was stashed in the house. How she knew where it was and why she took it he still wondered, but there was no point pondering on it now. 

Ivar looked at the note, he could feel his chest tightening, it had been a long time since he had reread it. Since he had moved out and found Freydis is became harder to find a way to reminisce about her in private, especially since he kept those things in his old room at his parents house. He began to reread it. 

" _I don't deserve you my love, and you may not understand it now, but I am no good for you. I will only tear your heart out if you open it to me and you don't deserve that. I love you, and I love your brothers, but I will bring nothing but trouble. Maybe one day I'll be good enough for you. I won't be so broken and fucked up. And maybe one day we can find our ways back to each other, but I won't ask that of you. I hope you can forgive me even if I don't deserve it. Things keep getting worse and worse and i can not return to this house or this life with all of you. May we meet again, whether in person or in Valhalla. And hopefully I will be worthy of you when we do. Until then my love."_

Ivar tried his best to contain a choked sob. God he missed her. There were so many things he wish he could've said to her, and now he would never have the chance to. He wanted to tell her again how much he loved her, whether she thought she was broken or not. That he would work with her through all of her issues and his, he wanted to give her the world, the sun, the moon, and all of the stars. He wanted to tell her that she was always the one for him, through thick and then, and that she was always enough. But he couldn't and he had to live with all of the unspoken words. 

Ivar let out a shaky breath and grabbed a glass vial out of the box. The perfume she had to wear. He held it up to his nose and to a slow inhale of it. Maybe tonight he would dream of her again, he hoped he did. He put the things back into the box and locked it. Gingerly putting it back in the drawer. He laid down next to Freydis and felt an odd guilt settle over him. Going through an old flames things as she slept peacefully next to him unaware. He sighed and stared up at the ceiling, watching the fan lazily spin above him. 

He lifted his fingers up to the ceiling and stared at the finger with a "A" tattooed on it. 

"Gods I miss you Anastasia." Ivar whispered to himself. 

Suddenly ivars phone buzzed, he quickly picked it up and looked at the too bright screen, squinting. 

It's from Hvitserk. 

" _Don't forget, tomorrow night we have a party at vestifold to welcome the new v.p._

_Father wants all of us there, don't be late."_

Ivar sighed and put the phone down, he didn't want to go but a part of the business is making appearances.

He sighed and closed his eyes, he would try to sleep.

  
  
  


Freydis was awake, and heard all of it. She smiled to herself knowing she would have something to report to her dearest Oleg. Ivar still thought of Anastasia, that cowardly bitch. She was stupid if she didn't know the Rus were still looking for her, and even dumber if she thought Oleg would let her go without a fight. He knows it's only a matter of time before you reach back out to the Lothrbrooks, and right back into his grip. Freydis tried to control her breathing as not to alert ivar that she was awake. Tomorrow she would talk to Oleg.


	3. Homecoming part 1

Chapter 2- homecoming part 1

Ana finished thanking the moving men and closed the door. After a short stay in a hotel, her and her son had moved into an apartment complex within Haralds territory, on the farthest side away from kattegat. Ana needed what distance she could get. She sighed and slumped down against the door looking around, she was surrounded by boxes big and small, all of which she definitely didn't feel like unpacking. Of course she had to though.

Ana looked up from her stare, hearing small footsteps running down the hall towards her.

"MAMA"

Ana was suddenly tackled by the giant toddler. For being 3 you would have never guessed it by his size. Her son had the most beautiful chocolate hair that he refused to let her cut, and stunning crystal blue eyes, and a smile that seemed permanently plastered to his chubby face.

"Alexei, you're crushing me!" Ana squealed with a giggle, grabbing the boy up and holding him close to her. She didn't know who his father was, and she never wanted to look into it. Even when she looked at the date of her alleged conception between those 2 weeks there was too many options, so she just ignored it. He was here and that was all there was to it.

"We skate mama?" The little boy asked, staying at the skateboards by the door. Ana had skateboarder in highschool, it was the easiest way to deal drugs and have a means of protection. After her first stint in juvy any weapons found on her were a felony and she didn't want to add another charge to her inevitable next arrest.

"Not yet lapachka, we just got here, we need to unpack and learn the neighbourhood first." Ana cooed to the little boy.  
He huffed and threw himself further into her, obviously disappointed by the answer he got.

"Tell you what, maybe I'll take you to meet a friend of mine today, hmm?" Ana said, she knew this was a bad idea but she hasn't seen her in years, it was time to meet with Aslaug.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

  
Aslaug was lounging on the chaise they had out back by the pool, her son's all outside with her, and ragnar at the foot of the chaise. He was gingerly rubbing her feet, staring at her through his sunglasses. Aslaug gave him a small smile that was obstructed by her own sunglasses and sun hat.

She listened to her kids talk and bicker amongst themselves as they all took in the sun, enjoying the day with them before they had to go out to Vestifold later tonight to welcome Harald new v.p. Aslaug wasn't told much about it, and she knew better than to ask.

The vibrating from her phone drew her out of her thoughts, looking over at the small glass table next to her that held quiet a few drinks. She picked it up and looked at it, the number was blocked.  
" Are you going to pick it up darling?" Ragnar asked, giving her a small smile once again.  
"Yes, I'll be right back." Aslaug said, trying her best to keep her voice neutral. She quickly picked up her phone and walked into the house, answering it as she closed the sliding glass door.

"Hello?" Aslaug said quietly.  
"Hey, it's me." Aslaug held in her breath. It's been 6 months since Ana's last called.  
"Oh my, hello darling, is everything well?" Aslaug never knew what to expect from these calls, whether Ana needed a shoulder to cry on, trouble she needed to discuss, or just a quick check in.  
" yeah yeah, everything is fine. I'm actually in Denmark right now, I was wondering if we could meet?" Ana asked, silently panicking on the other end.  
"Oh! Yes, of course! When and where should we meet?" Aslaug was so excited but she was fighting to contain it, trying not to alert anyone to her secret rendezvous in the making.  
"How about the old bakery I used to work at? Are you free today?" Ana asked.  
Aslaug knew just where to go, there was a small mom and pop bakery in down town. Ana worked there in highschool for a small stint before she started delivering for ragnar full time.  
"Of course! How does 2 work for you?" Aslaug asked, peeking through the curtains to make sure all of the boys and such were still preoccupied.  
"Perfect. I'll see you then." And she hung up.

Aslaug heart fluttered, it had been almost 4 years since she's seen Ana last, and just like that you were back. She remembered your disappearance, your death, and the day you called her to say you were ok in the state's. It had been a whirlwind the past few years, her whole family grieving and not being able to do anything about it, but if there was one thing Aslaug knew it was that there was a purpose behind all of the things you were doing and one day she might explain it all.

Aslaug walked back out onto the patio, still bikini clad and sat back in her spot.  
"Who was that?" Ragnar questioned, an eyebrow quirked.  
"Just an old friend who wants to meet up." Aslaug said as nonchalantly as she could muster, throwing back on her sunglasses and sun hat, hoping to hide any signs that she was withholding the truth.  
Ragnar hummed at her and went back to his phone.

"Boys, watch after your mother this afternoon."

Ragnar sent out a group text. Ragnar wasn't worried that Aslaug was lying per say, but he found it odd that his wife was meeting "an old friend" the same day that Harald new right hand was being officially welcomed into their new status. There wasn't enough info on this infamous Valkyrie or "V", it took him almost a whole year just to find out they were a woman. The thought of his wife being in harm's way made him nervous, and what better way to quell his worries then sick is boys on any danger that may come her way.

As each of his son's made their way to their phones at different times sending ragnar their affirmations. Everything was in motion.

  
● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

  
Hvitserk stared at his mother sitting at a small table outside the old bakery through the tinted windows of the SUV he and his brothers were seated in.  
"Why are we even here?" Sigurd complained from the front seat, as always.  
"Because father asked us to sigurd, now be a good son." Ivar quipped back at him from the other middle seat.  
Hvitserk and ubbe groaned simultaneously, neither in the mood to listen to their younger brothers quarrel inside of a car for however long this meeting took.  
"Father is just taking a precaution, it's suspicious someone wants to meet with mom the same day that V is being welcomed into a rival syndicate." Ubbe said in a fairly neutral tone, trying to not show any concern.  
"Look, someone's coming up to her!" Sigurd practically yells.  
The brothers smack at him with different variations of hushings and shut ups and look through the windows towards their mother.

She was the most beautiful thing they had seen, a vision. Her long fiery hair was braided and thrown over a shoulder, nearly hitting her waist. She donned a white dress and a warm brown bag, and a child in hand next to her. The sway of her hips, her smile, the downtown light settling over her skin - he could've sworn she was freya come to life. Hvitserk didn't realize his mouth was open until ivar smacked under his chin.  
"Quit drooling like a dog." Ivar snapped, causing the other brothers to giggle.  
"Sorry, wasn't expecting mor to be meeting up with a god damn milf." Hvitserk scoffed back, earning more chuckles and approving hums from the other two brothers.

Ivar scowled. She was stunning, gorgeous, beautiful, there weren't enough words to describe the redhead who was currently embracing his mother. He wasn't sure why but it infuriated him that his brothers were also infatuated with her, ivar never liked sharing but they hadn't even seen this woman before till literally a few seconds ago, for his rage to already start burning inside of him was a bit ridiculous which just made him angrier. Ivar continued to watch along with his brothers who were making snide comments about the underwear she might be wearing or if she was in need of a step father.

"Oh my god, I hope she lives around here, I think my stomach would drop straight out of my ass if I met her!" Hvitserk joked, still oggling the redhead who was currently laughing. Dear God she was something. His mother began to cry and they all stopped what they were doing? What's wrong, what's going on, oh shit. He watched his mother take the child into her lap and hold him, wiping his long hair away from his face. His mother continued to softly cry while she held the boy and the woman had a soft sad look on her face. All of the brother had a hand on their respective door handles in case shit hit the fan.

  
● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

"That's why you left?" Aslaug silently sobbed. Ana said enough in the few words she gave as to not alert her son to the situation. About ragnar and yidu, and the things she went through. Aslaug couldn't help but cry. Anastasia was like the daughter she never had and for this to happen to her under Aslaug watch, by ragnar no less - it was enough to make any mother weep.  
"I couldn't say over the phone because I didn't want to get compromised or cause any issues while I wasn't in a position to protect us." Ana said solemnly while looking at her son seated in Aslaug lap.

Aslaug sniffles and looked up to ana, " do you know who his father is?" Aslaug asked, looking back to the boy who was happily kicking his feet and looking around the new town.  
"No." Ana said, not wanting to say any more than that. She had already caused a lot of pain telling Aslaug what happened, she didn't need to add the fact that it was at least between 10 different men, not including her son's if her memory serves.  
Aslaug hummed her response, not asking anymore. She stared down at the boy in her lap. He reminded her of her ivar. Aslaug knew that ana and ivar had something special, even with the girls indiscretions at the time.

"Can I ask you something?" Aslaug said quietly.  
" if I were to look into paternity tests, would you let me?" Aslaug looked back down at the boy, not wanting to see the look on Ana's face and if there would be any disdain or discomfort in her face.  
As she looked down at the boy he looked up at her and smiled, grabbing her shirt. Alexei has the Lothrbrook eyes, whether Ana knows it or not. She's never seen blue eyes like that on anyone else but her boys.

"If you really want to I'll give you whatever sample you need from Alexei, but I'm not sure what I'd do with that info if you could even find it. It changes nothing." Ana said with a neutral tone, her face just as stale as her words.  
Ana wasn't lying. She didn't know what she'd do if she found Alexei's father. Either it was one of the men she was pimped out to, fat chance finding them, or it was a ragnarssons. Equally unsavory. After telling ragnar she would ruin him, and somewhat accomplishing that goal - squashing practically every charter and business deal he had in the state's, rekindling her relationship with that family and metaphorically raining from the grave was not a smart idea.

"Ok, I'll let you know." Aslaug quietly said.  
They continued on with small talk instead of such heavy subjects. Alexei wouldn't let Aslaug go, he took to her very quickly, giving her small kisses and staying cuddled up to her side for as long as he could. Eventually the waiter came and brought them more coffee and the pastries they had ordered. The soft clink of the cups alerted them and the began to enjoy more of their time in the waning sunshine of the downtown.


	4. Homecoming part 2

Ivar and his brothers watched as the waiter gave his mother and the woman their order. Coffee and rum rolls. He remembered when Ana worked there, he and Hvitserk of course would visit her often. Back then she was the one who would make the pastries, the rum rolls were always the ones she made best as they were her favorites. Ivar continued to stare out at nothing in particular, lost in his thoughts.

"Hey, she's leaving." Sigurd said.  
"Hvitserk, ivar, tail her - sigurd and I will make sure mor gets home safe." Ubbe said, eyes still glued to his mother and the woman.  
"Why send the cripple huh." Ivar huffed, he actually really wanted to go, but he didn't want to let that on.  
"Shut up and come on!" Hvitserk said with a huge grin on his face. Ivar huffed again and began to get out of the car.  
"Hey Hvitserk! Don't let your stomach fall out of your ass!" Ubbe laughed as he started the SUV.  
Hvitserk chuckled then smacked ivar on the shoulder signaling to start following.

Ivar and his brother stayed back enough distance to not be noticed, but close enough to not lose her.  
"She got a great ass." Hvitserk said to nobody in particular, more or less talking to himself and affirming more features and assets the woman walking along had. Ivar grunted his response, eyes still trained on the woman. Her hand held her young son's but it was starting to get late, the sun already making it's way down to set. As they walked the sky began to change to orange and pink, bathing her skin in a glow. The more he looked at her, covered in ink and somehow still just as delicate as the flowers that swayed in the wind, something about her worried him.

She stopped walking, ivar grabbed Hvitserk and shoved him against the wall with him. They watched as the woman picked up her son, who looked tired, and then continued to walk. The brothers released a breath they didn't know they were holding and continued following them. It only took a few blocks before they realized they were leaving kattegat territory and heading straight into the heart of Vestifold.  
"You got your gun?" Hvitserk asked him.  
"Allways." He replied. And they kept walking.

Ivar and Hvitserk kept getting more and more weary as they continued on following the woman. There's a chance she doesn't know that this is gang territory, and there's also a chance that she knows perfectly well that it is. They were fairly deep inside of Vestifold by this point before they saw someone running towards the woman and her son. Ivar and his brother both instinctively put their hands on their guns, ready to draw at any moment.  
"Is that fucking Halfdan?" Hvitserk said incredulously.  
"That it fucking is." Ivar said, somewhat confused on why this man would be running to the woman. He started to agree more and more with father that they needed to watch mother. Halfdan didn't just walk up to women, he hadn't been with anyone for as long as ivar could remember.

"She just handed him the kid, it's not his is it?" Hvitserk seemed more and more vexed, whether it was the imminent threat of being in rival territory and fucking Halfdan being here or the fact that the piece of ass in front of him might be off limits in some capacity he didn't know.  
Ivar didn't reply, keeping his blue eyes trained on the woman and Halfdan, trying to figure out what the relation was. She obviously trusted him if she handed him her now sleeping child.  
Just then more people followed Halfdan, his brother Harald and his wife Astrid.  
"We need to go." Hvitserk said and he grabbed him by his shoulder and began to drag him the other way.

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

Ivar rested his hand on his fist, rolling his eyes as he listened to his brother recount the events to their father and their other brothers, never going more than a sentence or two without mentioning some aspect of what a "milf" she was.  
"I'm not sure what all is happening between them but there's some connection there, we should keep an eye on mor from now on. Security detail, follows, something." Hvitserk finally finished.  
"Agreed, when I checked her phone the number that called her was blocked, I'm sure floki can track it for us but more curious as to why your mom is keeping secrets than anything else." Ragnar said, a slight sing-song intonation to his sentence. Ragnar balled and uncalled his fist, and then finally waved it, shooing him and his brothers off.

Ivar just wanted to go to bed, he was over his day of stalking and brother and wanted nothing more than to hurry himself in between his Freydis's legs and let out his frustrations. He wasn't sure why it was but something about the nameless woman had him flustered and that just made him angrier. Ivar never knew how to deal with his feelings and anger seemed to be the only comfort he had.  
As he walked out of his father's cushy office into the main hall of the mansion he saw his mother walk past him and into the office. She had a scowl on her face that she did a piss poor job at hiding.  
Looking at her son her face instantly changed. Her eyes softened and she gently pet his hair as she slinked into his father's office. Ivar was sure a fight was about to ensue.

Ivar eventually made his way to his boyhood room, and began to remember how he missed his and Freydis's apartment, but of course they stayed here every now and then as the rest of the family did when there was business or events to be discussed. He walked into the room to see Freydis not there, he looked around, she waved at him from the small patio outside his room with a cigarette in one hand and her phone in the other.  
Fuck it. "I'll just jerk off" ivar thought to himself. He made his way to the bathroom and started the water for his shower.

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

"You're sure she's here?" Oleg asked  
"Yes, Aslaug went to meet with somebody, and ivar looked down right pissed. Not sure if he knows it's her but who else would Aslaug be meeting with, besides - the follows we had said they had a positive I.d. on her and the boy." Freydis grinned as she spoke. It's been quiet a while since she could deliver any good new to her boss/lover.  
"Keep me posted katya."  
"Of course." And with that they hung up the phone.

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

"I know everything ragnar, don't fucking lie to me!" Aslaug roared at her husband.  
" Why is this coming up now? Hmm? Did our precious Ana send you a letter from beyond the grave?" Ragnar quipped back, almost laughing at his wife.  
"How could you?! She was like our daughter and you went and sold her for your drug habits?!" Aslaug all but screamed at him. She slapped him across his face, a loud crack and the sting of her palm letting her know that she had hit him with as much force as she meant.  
Ragnar looked up at her from under his lashes, his face instantly changing to one that was as serious as a heart attack. He stood up and began to slowly round his desk towards Aslaug. Aslaug went to start hitting ragnar again but he quickly grabbed her wrists and held her against one of the many book cases that lined the walls of his office. He brought his face close to her, so close she felt the silent puffs of air from his breathing against her cheek.

"Let me remind you wife, that ana and I both had our issues, and while I regret what I made her do, she never told me no, or to stop. Think what you will but she is dead, this conversation is over. Unless of course, you have something you wish to tell me. Maybe about that old friend of yours." Ragnar whispered against her skin, his teeth bared.  
He had lied, Ana had asked him not to make her do those things anymore- more than once, but of course the addict in him had talked her into doing it "just one more time". Aslaug didn't need to know that though. He released his grip on her and she slumped to the floor and began to sob. Ragnar gave his wife one last look as he quietly stepped away from her and out of the office.  
He didn't need this, they had a party to get ready for.


	5. Party Hardy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize in advanced, it's a long one.   
> Please let me know what you think 😁

Chapter 4 party hardy 

Anastasia kept walking towards her apartment, thinking back on what Aslaug had said, about the paternity test. Her brain had told her not to allow it, that she shouldn't have even met with her today, but her heart couldn't allow Aslaug to go on day to day within 20 miles of her never knowing. Maybe the paternity test was Aslaug's backwards way of trying to find an apology for her, for what happened to her - either way Ana always did have a hard time telling Aslaug no.   
She kept walking with her son softly snoring on her shoulder, her poor boy tired out from a day of adventuring around downtown before their meeting with her past.

As she continued on she heard her name and looked in the direction.   
"Val!" It was Halfdan, who was currently jogging towards her.   
"Long time no see stranger!" He heartily greeted her.  
"Shhhh, Alexei is sleeping." She said softly with a smile that met her eyes. She hadn't seen Halfdan in some months and had missed him dearly as she always did.   
He reached over and took the boy who was dead weight, easily cradling him against his muscular chest. Ana moved her arms which were tired from carrying the snoozing toddler down a number of blocks from the bakery.

They took only a few more steps before Harald and Astrid came upon them much as Halfdan did, with a slight jog to their step. Harald embraced her in a bear hug that tightly gripped her to him, nearly knocking all of the air from her lungs and released her, clasping his large hands on either side of her shoulders.   
"The mighty valkyrie has arrived to ride the storm and defeat all of our enemies!" Harald jested, smiling that show stopping smile of his as he took her in. She saw them every few months but it seemed to him that every time he saw her she was more beautiful than the last.   
"It's good to see you too harald!" Anastasia smiled at him, her hands holding his own that were still on her shoulders.   
She looked over to Astrid and made her way over for a hug as well, tightly embracing the dark haired woman.   
"It has been too long val." Astrid said, smiling just as all of them were. 

"So there is good news and bad news." Harald said as they continued to walk to her apartment, only 2 or 3 blocks away now. Ana eyed him curiously but said nothing.  
"The good news, we are throwing you a party at my club, everyone who is anyone will be there to acknowledge the new vice president of Northmen Enterprises." Harald said, eye still trained on Ana.  
"The bad news is, the Lothrbrooks will be in attendance." Harald said.  
Ana's eyes widened quickly at how incredibly stupid of an idea that was. Before she could open her mouth Harald continued.  
"I know that's the last thing you want but It would be suspicious if they were not invited. They are our allies even if they are our competition, and I doubt they'd recognize you, the years have treated you far kinder than most in our profession." Halfdan said, eyes never leaving yours. 

There was no room for argument. He was president, and she was his right hand now. She would have to follow him with the utmost loyalty and honor his decisions, whether she agreed or not. Ana let out a breath, continuing to walk to her new home. They continued on their walk, making some small talk in the short time it took them to reach her apartment. Astrid was going to watch Alexei for the night so that ana could attend her own party. They walked towards the doorway, harald kissing Astrid and Halfdan handing over the still sleeping boy to ana.  
"I guess I better make a good first impression." Ana said dryly over her shoulder to the murder brothers, hoping to pinch a nerve.

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

Ivar stared out the window of the uber he and Freydis were taking to the club. He really didn't want to go, clubs really weren't his scene anymore. Even more so the fact that it was work related made it even worse. He felt a hand on his and turned his attention to the girl next to him. Freydis had a Smokey eye and her hair pinned up, a body suit that hugged every curve and dip, and of course giant hoop earrings. She looked like every man's wet dream.   
"Don't worry darling, we just have to be there for appearances and then we can leave early." She said with a sultry undertone to her voice. Ivar was glad she seemed to want to fuck tonight, Lord knows he needed to release some frustration in a more cathartic way than beating himself with his hand. 

They made it inside the club with minimal effort, everyone knew who they were, practically royalty in their country. They made their way to the VIP section with their escort acting as a way to part the ocean of bodies surrounding them. When they got to their section it was much more quiet and much cooler without the pollution of all the grinding bodies. The VIP section was a closed off room with windows that overlooked the dancefloor, a chandelier, and all the other nit picky things that people who could afford to be here would expect. He scanned the room, quickly finding his family seated at the lounge area with a round booth and table.

Ivar hobbled over with Freydis in tow, who was currently going through her clutch looking for his pain pills for him. She handed them to him and he quickly downed them with the champagne sitting at the table. Just as quickly as he had swallowed the alcohol he had sat down and began to remove his blazer. Ivar let out a huff and began to roll up his sleeves over his thick forearms, his gun holsters now very visible as was the scowl on his face. He smoothed back his hair into a bun and looked over to the rest of his family who were jovially drinking and laughing. 

"You know you're not supposed to drink with those right?" Ubbe asked, knowing full well that ivar knew.  
"Blow me" ivar barked at him, in no mood, his legs were killing him today from all of the walking he had to do earlier. Not a moment later Harald walked out and everyone began to quiet down. Ivar and the rest of the table looked over as they waited for the prepared speech and whatever else Harald had planned. 

"Friends, family, and alike!" Harald began.  
"Tonight we want to give welcome to our newest vice president, Valerie Moreau! This woman has single handedly taken over our u.s. enterprises and has helped this business become the multinational that it is today!" Harald boomed, his eyes directed at ragnars own.   
"While I am of course, sad that my brother will be joining Bjorn on his Medeterainian ventures, I am honored to have this woman as my right hand! Please, a round of applause ladies and gentlemen!" Harald all but yelled, clapping vigorously himself. 

Ivar eyes traveled the room, looking for the woman in question, Valerie, the infamous "V". His eyes landed on a head of red hair, held high in a pony tail with many intricately smaller braids hanging along with the loose tufts. The head made it's way towards the podium and ivars heart all but stopped. Was this the girl from earlier today, the one Aslaug met with?   
Ivar looked over to his brothers which all shared his look, and an intrigued ragnar. Turning his head back to the woman he could see just how drop dead sexy she looked. She had on the highest pair of patent leather red bottom Lois Vuitton heels he had ever seen, black skin tight pants, a fitted leather jacket, and ivar couldn't quiet make it out, but he swears she's wearing lingerie underneath of that jacket. 

"Thank you to everyone who came to welcome me today, it will not go unnoticed. And while I am sad to see Halfdan go, I wish him nothing but luck on his new endeavours and thank him and his brother for this new opportunity." The woman, Valerie as ivar now knows, nods at Harald and Halfdan approvingly.   
"I also hope to assure those with any doubts that they have nothing to fear. I solely ran more square miles than the whole of this country while in the state's, and I plan to grow this enterprise into something even larger. Skol!" Valerie raised her drink, making direct eye contact to his table, staring down ragnar. So she's a threat, ivar thinks to himself. 

Everyone began to party like there was no tomorrow, drinking and doing drugs to their hearts content. That woman, Valerie, began making rounds, introducing herself with Harald at her side to all of the different people in attendance.   
"So that was the woman your mother met with?" Ragnar mused, his eye had never left her.   
"Yes. Although I will say she definitely didn't look like that." Ubbe replied, earning a smack from margarethe.   
"She is gorgeous!" Freydis beamed, flashing that killer smile to everyone around her. Ivar just scowled. He didn't know who she was, what her affiliations with his mother was, she was a mystery that was seemingly a threat to his family - and he didn't like that. He watched as she came strutting towards their table, a champagne flute exchanged for a tumbler glass with a dark liquid in it.

"Hello there, figured I would come introduce myself to the infamous lothbrooks." She said, giving a fake grin to the table.  
"Ah, so it is lingerie" ivar thought to himself, silently reaffirming his earlier suspicion.   
"Ragnar" his father huffed out.  
"And my son's and their women, ubbe, Hvitserk, sigurd, and ivar." He said just as quickly.  
"Val." The woman said, offering a hand out to ivar that her face begged him not to take.   
He smacked her hand away and scowled even harder than he was before, if that was even possible.  
"Oh my goodness, I love your rings!" Freydis all but shouted, grabbing Valerie's hand and yanking it to her.  
"Ivar, look at this one!" Freydis prodded, ivar looking down at the woman's hands, very unhappily.   
As quickly as Freydis went to move Ana's ring over to show the tattoo hiding behind it she had snatched her hand back. 

"Oh my goodness, my bad!" Freydis apologized, trying her best to act innocent.   
"I just really love your rings!"  
Ana stared at the girl, she looked familiar, but she couldn't place it.  
The rest of the family watched the interactions closely, waiting to see what the next move would be.  
Suddenly Ana's eyes grew wide, " God fucking damn it" she thought to herself.  
"Nice to see you again katya." Ana said with the most amount of hatred she had felt in a long time.   
She went to strut off, grabbing Hvitserk as she walked away.

"Woah woah woah! What did I do!" Hvitserk yelled as he was being yanked out of his seat.  
"You seem like a guy who knows how to have fun, follow me." And with that Hvitserk needed to hear nothing else. His grin grew wide as he was led out and into the crowd by probably the hottest woman he thinks he's ever seen.

The table watched as Hvitserk was all but chasing after V like a lost puppy, and then to Freydis.  
"Why did she call you katya?" Ivar asked, eyeing Freydis with a dangerous glint.   
"She must have me confused with somebody else." Freydis stated nonchalantly and sipped her drink, continuing to make small talk with margarethe.   
Ivar hummed his response. Watching as his brother and the most beautiful woman he had ever seen slink away into some dark corner. He excused himself to go into the bathroom.

As he walked away from the table his eyes scanned the room for the woman again. Ivar didn't want to think it was true. He thought he saw a tattoo underneath her ring, but his eyes must be playing tricks on him. Even if she did, it couldn't be ana, she was dead. He saw her body, the dental records were matched, he buried her. She couldn't be alive. He went to push open the door to the bathroom, the lights flickering slightly, the fluorescence causing him to wince. Whoever this woman is, ivar needed to find out more about her - whether it be out of his own twisted curiosity or for other reasons. He wondered what things he could say to get put on her as a follow, if there was one thing he enjoyed, it was collecting info. He stayed lost in thought as he made his way to the urinal. Just then the door burst open. 

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ● 

Hvitserk and her made their way through the crowd in the VIP lounge, finding a small dimly lit corner. His hands instantly made their way to her hips and his lips found her ear, whispering sweet nothings to her. Her eyes scanned around the room as she brought him around in front of her, his face burying itself in her neck, peppering small kisses towards her jaw. Ana almost couldn't concentrate with him kissing her, she felt like she was in highschool again. She inhaled deeply the scent of him that she had all but forgotten, her hands going up to the bun on his head, releasing his honey brown locks around them. She craned her neck to the side to give Hvitserk better access and so that she could see the crowd better. 

Ana always had a backup plan for most things, in fact, Ana had many many back up plans for almost everything. That's what made her such an asset to Harald, she was a tactician, always at least 2 steps ahead of everyone. Freydis as she now calls herself, was not an issue she had foreseen and that had angered her. This was something she needed to nip in the bud.   
She looked around and spotted ivar, his permanent scowl so deep she thought his eye would get lost underneath his brooding brows. Ana knew ivar would dismiss himself somewhere, for one reason or another. She just had to wait to pounce, and of course her snatching away Hvitserk would cause it's own discourse at the family's table, everyone would be distracted. And if Ana was correct, Freydis would be getting up once she noticed ivar was gone. 

"Lets take this somewhere more private." Ana said breathily, dizzy from the kisses and small bites. Hvitserk still placing soft kisses on her neck.   
"Whatever you say val." Hvitserk mumbled against her skin.   
She grabbed his hand and led him towards the bathrooms.  
"Oh, by the way, do you like coke?" Ana asked looking over her shoulder with a sly grin. She already knew the answer but she had to play dumb for this facade of hers to hold up. It should've been a stupid question either way, what drug dealer didn't like drugs, and especially cocaine.   
"Definitely." He replied, smirking at her through cloudy eyes. 

Ana led him towards the bathroom, knowing full well ivar was in there. Hvitserk slammed the door open and looked over to see his little brother at the urinal, cock in hand. He giggled to himself as the redhead followed suit behind him, looking away as his brother tucked himself back into his pants. If Hvitserk didn't know any better he would think ivar was jealous, the scowl glued to his face seemed to deepen every time he saw the woman behind him.  
"Whoops, sorry to interrupt." The redhead smiled at him shyly, turning around towards the counter. She reached into the cup of her teddy body suit, the lace moving smoothly against her fingers. Ivar stared, his mouth opening slightly, he could see more and more of her creamy skin as she was opening her chest to the mirror in front of her. 

He cleared his throat and looked at his brother, his face instantly hardening again.  
"Father is going to be pissed." Ivar spit at Hvitserk, trying his best to let his rage overtake him so he could get the images of his brother and the woman's inevitable fucking out if his brain. The thoughts of what her body looked like under the downright sexy outfit she had on, or the sounds she might make. He shouldn't be mad, he thought to himself - girls aren't interested in crippled, he needed to rid himself of thoughts of her.   
"What father doesn't know won't hurt him" the red head quipped back, removing 2 baggies from the cups of her lingerie. 

"You're more than welcome to join us." She said, staring down across at ivar who had an equally intense look.   
Hvitserk walked over and took out a card from his wallet, cutting up the powder with his credit card and dividing them into lots of little white lines.   
The bump of the music from outside the bathroom seemingly in beat with the clinking of the card on the counter.   
Ivar scowled again but said nothing, watching as the woman walked over and locked the bathroom door with the 3 of them in it. 

Ivar looked over and walked to the counter, still saying nothing, taking the rolled up hundred dollar bill from Hvitserk and bending down to hit his lines.   
"WOOOO" Hvitserk screeched, lifting up from his own lines and snorting obnoxiously.   
"That's some good shit!" His eyes already blown wide. He looked over to the woman who only grinned, pouring out the other baggie.   
She watched as the brother leaned down to take more lines together.  
"It's go time." Ana thought to herself, and silently crept out of the bathroom, unlocking the door without a sound. Her plan was working.

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ● 

"Ok, I've only got 2 minutes tops before they come looking for me." Ana silently thought to herself, knowing she had to be quick in her mission. Find Freydis, and stop that cunt in her tracks.   
It had been a very long time since she saw her, every time she was hanging all over her piece of shit cousin. Her family was shity, that much was clear, but her cousin had an odd fascination with her ever since she was a child. Oleg was also one of the first abusers on her long list.   
Katya, or Freydis, had grew on Oleg like a God damn tumor and planted seeds that made him even crazier than when Ana first knew him.   
Ana walked as quickly as she could through the crowd without drawing attention, searching the sea of people for the particular blonde she sought after.

Bingo  
Just then Ana saw Freydis standing by a wall, just far away enough from the bathroom that she could easily slip out of the boys line of sight. She was coming up quickly on Freydis, who was texting on her phone.   
Ana quickly pushed the blonde against the wall, nails digging into her arm.

"What a surprise running into you again." Ana hissed into her ear. Slowly closing the distance between the blondes body and her own, keeping her as immobile as she could.   
"H-hi Ana, to what d-do I owe this pleasure." Freydis stuttered. Ana had always been unpredictable and unadulterated in all that she did, and Freydis knew there was a 50/50 chance Ana was going to cause a scene.  
"Keep your distance from me. I don't care what you tell Oleg, but if I ever see you again, I will end you. I hope you're ashamed of yourself for doing this to me and to ivar. Next time it's on site." Ana backed off of the girl and pushed her into the wall.

Freydis's eyes became wide and wet with tears. She was always recon, hidden, out of harm's way. Hell, she could barely fight. And here Ana was, making a clear threat that Freydis knew she would back up. As the redhead walked off ivar and Hvitserk quickly came to her side, pushing through other people in the room to get to her.   
"Are you alright!" Ivar practically yelled, grabbing Freydis and looking all over her for any marks.  
"Yeah, what was that about? You two know each other?" Hvitserk asked with much less concern than his little brother. He never liked Freydis, and he was definitely finding it a bit suspicious that Valarie had called her katya, and now she was being cornered by the woman, strangers didn't do that.

"She's just mad because she wants ivar." Freydis huffed out. It wasn't a total lie, but it would at least throw them off of her own trail. She needed to shift their full attention to this being a "valerie" issue and not a "Freydis AND valerie" issue. 

"She wanted me?" Ivar thought to himself. Today was just way too much.  
Mother meeting v, Freydis being attacked by her, tensions between Northman Enterprises and Lothbrook LLC had been at an all time high when they had first heard of the take over, and fucking Valerie and whatever the hell it was about her that kept drawing him in like a magnet in general.   
Ivar grabbed Freydis and pulled her in close while simultaneously looking for the tired up red hair in the crowd. She was walking out with Harald and Halfdan.  
This woman is definitely going to be a problem.

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

Ragnar had watched everything. Valerie looking at their table, her grabbing his son, her watching his other son the whole time she was being pressed into a corner, and of course her little catch up with Freydis.   
"Put a tail on her. I want info." Ragnar said. His eyes never leaving the redhead as she made her way to the exit with Harald and Halfdan.   
"Yes sir." Ubbe said, whipping out his phone to make the call.


	6. Fuck up

Chapter 5 - fuck up

"What in the fuck were you thinking?!" Harald had hissed in her face, as soon as they had made it out of the back door of the club he had snatched her arm up against him in a rage.

"It's a long story. That girl is one of oleg's toy!" Ana had said in her defense, trying to pry her arm from the tattooed man's grip.

"And do you know that she's still involved with Oleg? Hmm?" Harald asked, slightly releasing his grip.

"Well, no, but there's no way she just "happens" to be here!" Ana jerked her arm free. Smoothing out her jacket and stepping slightly away from the flustered man.

She watched as Harald smoothed his hands over his hair in frustration, Halfdan standing off to the side with his arms crossed.

"She's with ivar, and besides, we had her looked into, everything checked out with her." Halfdan said, watching as his brother paced back and forth between them.

Suddenly, Harald swooped in close to Ana, face only inches from her own and his hands fisted in the jacket she had so gingerly smoothed back out.

"Do not start shit, in my town, that you have no business starting!" He screamed at her, spit flying from his snarling mouth.

"Your first day seeing that family and you're already causing me trouble. Get your shit together, and do it quickly." He released her with a shove, not unlike what she had earlier done to Freydis, and walked away, leaving her and his brother in the alley behind the club.

"You shouldn't have done that." Halfdan said to her.  
She nodded and followed him to his car. They were probably right, but there's no way Freydis couldn't still be involved.

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

It had been a few weeks since she became V.P. and Ana was keen on proving herself to Harald, especially after her little hiccup at the party. She had been in every other night to make sure all the books were cooked, early to every meeting and stayed late going over Intel - hell, she even did her own research on other companies and their happening after Alexei was asleep for the legal parts of the business.

Ana flopped down the laptop on her lap, reaching onto her coffee table for the glass of whiskey that she had been nursing, tired of staring at the screen and the analytics she had compiled on the new assignments Harald had assigned her.  
She lounged back on her couch, taking a sip of the strong drink, staring around at the toys and other clutter that was scattered around her apartment.

It wasn't luxurious, Harald had tried to set her up in the nicest one he owned but she didnt want luxurious. It was small, quaint, I didn't make her stand out as someone with any connections, which is what she had really wanted.  
She took another sip and then set the glass down with a small clink, making sure not to make too much noise, and walked towards the bathroom. She quietly padded down the hall and stepped onto the tile flooring.

She opened the medicine cabinet and looked for the bottle of pills she had that was a ball and chain on her. The SSRI's she was prescribed did the job they were meant to do - curb her cravings for sex and almost completely stop those cravings from functioning in general. That however made her feel like an old man forever chain to his Viagra. she had to plan ahead any rendezvous so that anything could actually happen. It had been almost a year since she had last had sex, and besides Halfdan, there were maybe only 2 other partners she had since she moved to the state's.

"Damn, I'm gonna need a refill soon." She said to no one in particular, she shook the pill bottle before she put it back in the cabinet and left. While she had a new identity, it was surprisingly difficult to get all of the documents to go through cleanly with insurance to deal with as well. She would need to figure something out quickly, she only had 4 pills left.

Ana sent a quick text to Harald.  
"Hey, we need to discuss insurance for Val and Alexei. Talk soon"

She plopped back onto her couch and continued to nurse her drink.  
She remembered her talk with Aslaug as well, and figured she should send her a text to follow up.  
She huffed and got back off the couch, searching around for the pre-pay phone she used. She went into a drawer in the closet in the hall and pulled out a box, grabbing the phone from it and fishing out a new SIM card, replacing the old for the new.

"Let me know when you want the sample from him" was all she said. Aslaug would hopefully know it was her.

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

Ragnar had briefed all of the son's on Val and to treat her as a threat, what he didn't mention was that he was now looking into Freydis along with looking into Val. Something was off with Valerie, and the fact that she knew Freydis made him even more uneasy. A fox in the hen house if you will. Ragnar had set a follow on Valerie and so far nothing of interest had come up, nothing he wasn't already aware of. Freydis however was a different story.

Ragnar had gotten numerous emails from floki with photos of her next to a man known only as "the prophet". Her hair was black but there was no mistaking her face. Info on her had become ragnars number one order of business, without the boys knowledge of course. Floki was more than capable of digging around, no need to alarm them just yet.  
While he still wanted more Intel on Val, Freydis was the priority at the moment.

Even with that being the case Val definitely was always at the back of his mind. It couldn't be just a coincidence that the same day Aslaug had met with her that his wife had called him out on his indiscretions against Ana. It seemed too good to be true to imagine she somehow faked her death and took a new identity. Even with all of the money she stole the means of getting those things done was not easy. Even if the timeline somewhat added up there was a very miniscule chance that a then high school drop-out could make those things happen. And for what reason would Harald and Halfdan get involved?  
Ragnar had come to the conclusion that it was possibly a friend from juvenile hall, maybe from highschool - but Ana never mentioned any friends.

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

Ivar had been waiting for this opportunity. His mother had hardly left the house since her last meeting with val, and he knew it was only a matter of time before the next one happened.  
They had acted so close, the way his mother held the other woman's son reminded him so much of how she used to hold him as a child. She couldn't be showing that amount of affection and ease with a complete stranger. They truly looked like they had known each other their whole lives with the way they interacted with each other.

He had followed her into downtown once again, but this time she had made her way past the bakery they had met at before and down towards a local park. He kept a fair distance- sunglasses and baseball cap keeping his features hidden in case his mother were to spot him, and made his way down the street.

He watched as his mother greeted the redhead who now donned a crop top and high-wasited jeans and sat down next to her on the benches. He let his eyes linger on the woman, her smile was so radiant and full of happiness at his mother, why is she smiling at her like that? As much as ivar wanted to believe there was something nefarious going on, their interactions were so pure towards each other. Nothing in her face, or even her body language gave ivar any reason to believe that this woman had any I'm feeling towards his mother.

Only a few minutes had passed before a small mop of brown hair came hurling towards Aslaug. The young boy had instantly crawled up into her lap and was happily flailing and screaming out small sentences at the woman.  
'They all look so damn happy' ivar thought to himself.

Ivar watched as they continued to talk, it had been a fairly long time, and he could feel his legs giving off a dull ache as he switched his weight from one leg to the other, trying to wait out the pain before he had a decent chance to take his pain pills. He kept his eyes on the women till he finally gave in, kneeling down as best as he could and opening his backpack. He rummaged around for his pills and a bottle of water and quickly took them out, taking the medication as fast as possible.

Ivar stood up with a muffled groan, trying to not bring any attention to himself and looked over to the women. They had all stood to leave, and it seemed they were going separate ways by the looks of it - the young boy crying a clinging to Aslaug legs. Ivar couldn't help but let out a small grin, but just as he did be watched as the redhead reached into her purse.  
The woman had a baggie full of, swabs?  
Why was she giving his mother swabs?  
If ivar had to choose something he hated about Val, it would be the number of unanswered questions he had. He was getting fed up with it.

He watched as his mother walked away and he turned and started heading away from them himself. He wouldn't hear the end of it if he got caught - especially after the altercation with Freydis.  
Ivar couldn't help himself when he thought about it. Something about that night made his chest swell just aittle bit. Not even just the fact that someone was putting Freydis in her place, but the fact that this woman who was the embodiment of a Valkyrie wanted him.  
It was probably because she didn't know he was crippled, that his legs were irreversibly fucked, but none the less it stroked his ego.  
He was going to find out more about her, no matter what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully some smut to come in the next chapter 😁


	7. Uninvited

Chapter 6 - uninvited

Ivar had been following Valerie for the past few weeks. Most everything had remained uneventful, but he quickly learned her schedule and her habits, even found out what apartment was hers after pretending to have "forgotten" his key and slipped inside with another one of the tenants. Ivar knew today she would be gone at the club for a number of hours, presumably to work, and that the child was in preschool till 3pm. He decided today was the day to do some snooping around. 

He had waited a full hour before even approaching the door, sulking around different halls or sitting in the lounge area of the apartment building just in case she forgot something and had to back track. Once ivar decided the coast was clear, he made his way to the door that belonged to the small family. 

He knelt down beside the door knob, making quick work of locking it. For someone whose main income was drug money, the locks should've definitely been better than this. Ivar quickly threw his picks and other things back in the bookbag he had with him and slinked inside the apartment. He gingerly shut the door and re-locked it, then turned around to start his inspection. 

It was small, a lot smaller than he expected of someone with her salary and reputation. He did a quick scan of the living room and saw the expected clutter and toys anyone would normally have. A quick walkthrough of the kitchen, opening different drawers and cabinets and taking a quick peek to see if there was anything of interest. Ivar then made his way down the hallway, opening a closet and patting and loosely shuffling things around. He went to quickly oat a towel and felt a hard clunk underneath his hand. He quickly snatched up the towel and the contents wrapped inside of it. 

There was a box wrapped inside the towel, 'not the smartest hiding spot' ivar thought to himself. So far the lack of any real security precautions and the underwhelming amount of anything interesting was making ivar second guess the woman he was looking into. 'How did she make it all the way up to vice president when she can't even hide a fucking box?'.

Suddenly ivars phone vibrated. He set the box down for just a moment and looked at his phone, ubbe was calling him. He let it continue to ring, he wasn't supposed to be here, or doing this at all. He had paid off the actual follow to be quiet about his little escapades, not that they needed it though - they knew his reputation well enough to know to stay quiet regardless. 

Ivar went back to the box as his phone was still lighting up, ubbe still trying to get a hold of him. He would call him back later. This box was a bit better than he expected. It was a lock box with a built in dial system of its own. Not the easiest to crack on a time crunch, but he figured he'd give it a try. He reached into his back pack again and pulled out a modified stethoscope, holding it near the locking mechanism.   
Right.left.right.   
It took ivar a few tries but after 10 minutes or so he finally found the combo and opened the box. 

Fake i.d.s for her and the child both, passports, different legal documents in multiple languages, and a heap of sin cards. All great quality, they'd pass under most any scrutising eye that wasn't specifically trained in the intricacies of counterfeiting and forgeries, but ivar knew exactly what to look for. He grabbed his phone that had already stopped buzzing and snapped a few quick photos.  
He then re-locked the box and folded it back up in the towel, putting it back where he had found it. 

Next he made his way into what he found to be the child's bedroom. Small, filled with toys and books. He half heartedly scuffled through a few things and checked most hiding places he could think of, finding nothing in there. He stepped into the next door he found, the bathroom. The bathroom for the most part was also uneventful, nothing too interesting besides the fact that he now knows that Val takes medications. What for specifically he could research later, snapping another pick of the bottle and the info on it.   
Out of curiosity ivar reached onto the counter, going through the womanly little trinkets and things that were artfully laid out on it. Jewelry, small bottles of oils and sprays, lotions and other beauty products. Ivar reached for a small bottle of perfume and sniffed it. He breathed it in deeply, the smell was nostalgic, triggering some odd feelings he couldn't place. He wished he could remember where he had smelled it before, feeling his chest tighten and swell at the same time.

He kept the bottle and walked into the last door in the hallway, Val's room. Instantly as he walked in the smell of her enveloped him like a blanket, comforting him in a way he didn't know his body seemed to miss. He looked around and saw the vast array of potted plants, large and small, scattered all around the room. Clothes strewn across the floor all around the laundry basket, bed unmade but extremely inviting in its disheveled state.   
Ivar made his way to the dresser, going through each drawer one by one for anything hidden. 

Ivar finally made his way to the top drawer and stopped. The infamous underwear drawer. Ivar had been with plenty of women, obviously as a grown man panties shouldn't have been such a forbidden fruit to him, but these were.  
He shook his head, trying to somehow clear his thoughts by rattling them around his skull, and proceeded with his objective. And he was not left empty handed. 

Ivar found 3 different hand guns in that top drawer, along with another box with a lid on it and a few files. 'Terrible at hiding' ivar again thought to himself. He opened the files and found they were all different bits and pieces of murders and other underground activity connected to someone under the name "the prophet". Ivar skimmed through it before putting it and the guns which he unloaded back into the drawer. 

Ivar grabbed the box and sat down on the bed, the impact from his weight causing a new swell of her scent to waft up directly to his nose. He took another deep breath, somehow the frayed nerves of his easing up with it. He sat the box down on his lap and opened it up. It was a simple stash box with weed, rolling papers, other paraphernalia - a few harder things were hidden in there too as well. Ivar took out one of the baggies of cocaine Val had hidden in the box and proceeded to only take a few key bumps. Not even under the guise that he didn't want the bag to look visibly lighter, but because she had not warned either him or his brother of the potency the last time - probably purposefully so. 

Ivar quickly put the things all back in the box and returned it to its hiding place, grabbing a pair of panties before closing the drawer. He couldn't help himself, and he didn't know why - he would just blame it on the coke and hope she didn't notice.   
He plopped himself back down on the bed, taking just a few more moments to enjoy the scent he couldnt place before he continued his search. So far he didn't find anything he didn't expect to and was somewhat disappointed. He figured there would be something a bit more fruitful than what he had found. 

He looked over to the bedside table, a flowering plant of some sort and a half drank cup of dark liquid sat next to a lamp. He lazily reached over and grasped for the drawer attached to it, sitting up. He grabbed another box out of it and opened it. His eyes immediately grew wide.

There was a stack of photos, and on the top was a picture of his father whose face was burned off.  
"What the fuck?" Ivar whispered to himself, grasping the stack of photos.   
These were all pictures of his family, some even with Anastasia in them.   
Well, if he had been looking for something interesting he found it.  
He continued to shuffle through, a lot of these photos were old, even of them as young children. 

Just then ivar heard the door unlock.   
'Shit'

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

"Fuck, I forgot my charger." Ana said, her phone dead.   
"Let me just run to my apartment real quick and then we can talk about the insurance things" She said as she looked over to Harald, they were discussing the usual business politics and happenings and trying to devise a new strategy for international shipments, and also a way for Ana to acquire her meds on the record. 

"Just call it a day, I'm pretty fed up with this shit anyways." Harald said, rubbing his hand over his face in exasperation and throwing his feet over onto the table they were sitting at.

"You sure?" Ana asked, not reaching for her things yet so as not to make Harald think she was trying to push her work off. 

The older man gruffed, his tattoos curling along with the deep wrinkles of his scowl as he brought his head into his hands.  
Ana thanked him and grabbed her things, trying to be quick but not too quick. Harald seemed to be in a mood and she didn't want to be on the other end of any aggravation the older man was withholding.

The walk back to her apartment was fairly quick, she only lived a few blocks away from the club. She quickly made her way up to her flat and revered in the thought of some much needed alone time - no work, no kid, she could veg out without a worry in the world for the next few hours.

She walked into the apartment and threw her things on the counter, immediately taking off her jeans and bra, throwing them somewhere across the room.   
"Oh my god!" She sighed in delight, she was definitely overworking herself in the hopes of getting Harald as well as their associated approval, and she couldn't remember the last time she had taken a break and just sat down with nothing to do.  
She walked over to her fridge and grabbed a beer and made her way down the hall to her room. 

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

Ivar was freaking out, trying to keep a lid on his anxiety, and the coke definitely wasn't helping. He had hidden on the other side of the door, which he had left open since she wasn't supposed to be home for some time. He heard the light padding of footsteps coming towards the room.  
'FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!"  
He drew his gun and stood ready behind the door, silently cursing as he realized that his backpack was by her bed and the photos were still out as well.  
She crossed the threshold and he held his breath, he tried to make himself into a statue, fearing even the rustle of his clothes from breathing would alert her to his presence.  
This was bad.

She walked into the room and stopped. She looked at her bed, her photos from her time with the lothbrok's spread eagle over her comforter.   
The woman carefully took another step, well aware someone was here that wasn't supposed to be, a black backpack partially hidden by her unmade covers hanging off the side of the bed.   
The redhead held her breath, chancing another step. She looked over to her dresser on the other side of the room. 

As soundlessly as she could, she shuffled over to her dresser. Trying to quietly open the top drawer and find her gun.  
"Fucking Oleg." She hissed to herself. Who else would have broken into her apartment?  
Just as quickly as she had grabbed her gun she heard the quiet click of someone behind her cocking their clip into place. 

"Listen, just don't move and I'll be out of here." A voice said behind her.   
'No fucking way!'

"Ivar fucking ragnasson." She stated flatly. Ivar held his pistol up, hoping the woman didn't make any attack on him, slowly backing up to get his backpack.   
He kept his eye trained on the woman, seeing she now for some reason had no pants on and was only clad in a white oversized shirt and panties. She turned around, no fear evident in her face. 

"I said don't move." Ivar hissed, reaching for his bag.  
The woman started stepping towards him, her hands had fallen to her sides from their previous upright position.  
"Or what?" She whispered, taking another step.   
Ivar was mesmerized, the way she was moving towards him was graceful, as if she was walking on air, floating to him. Her eyes were trained on his, drawing him in like a snake before striking it's prey.

"Why are you here ivar?" The woman asked, almost inaudible.  
Ivar couldn't stop staring, that was until she was right up against the point of his gun, her chest flush against it.

"What is all of this!?" He snarled, referring to the photos.   
"I know you've been seeing my mother, what is it you want with us?!"

Valerie had kept a blank face, but didn't answer immediately, which caused ivars rage to well up, quickly over taking him.   
His arm shot out quickly, grabbing a fistfull of the fiery locks. 

"ANSWER ME!" He all but screamed, spit flying from his mouth and onto her face.  
The woman didn't seem phased, she still stared up into his eye with her own Forrest green ones. There was a twinkle there, and for a second ivars grip loosened as he stared back. 

He was immediately met with a head but which knocked him off balance for only a second. Ivar roared as the woman scrambled back to her dresser, assumably to look for her gun. Ivar was always 2 steps ahead though, and had emptied all of the clips.  
When he looked up the woman had brandished her own pistol and was advancing towards him.

"Get out ivar." She said calmly. Ivar went to speak, but once he tasted blood from his lip, he began to see red. 

"No." He said with a slight scoff. 

"I'm warning you." The woman took another step towards him, and made an odd face when ivar began laughing. 

"You really are dumber than you look."  
Ivar quickly advanced towards the woman, who tried to quickly scramble backwards to keep them distanced.   
Ivar kept walking till the woman was against the wall. 

"Leave ivar!" She yelled to him, gun still held confidently high. 

Ivar scoffed again, he didn't know what game they were going to be playing, but he knew he was going to win.   
He kept stepping closer and closer till he was only a foot away from Valerie's gun. 

"You'll have to shoot me if you want me to leave." Ivar said flatly, rolling his neck with a grin plastered on his face. 

The woman quickly reaimed her gun so that she would shoot his leg instead of his chest and pulled the trigger twice. 

Click click

She stared at her gun in disbelief and then back up to ivar, who had a self satisfied look on his face.  
Quicker than the woman could react he grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against the wall.  
Ivar pushed his weight into her throat, his body pinning the rest of her against the wall.  
But then ivar tensed.  
Did she just moan?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So smut next chalter then, whoops  
> Also, I try to keep things under 3,000 words, so as not to tire anyone out


	8. Hook up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, long chapter, only smut   
> Hope y'all enjoy

Chapter 7 - hook up

He grabbed her by the neck and pushed her against the wall, his body leaning into her own - effectively imobilizing her.   
A small moan escaped her lips unintentionally. It had been weeks, no meds to keep her cravings at bay, and she was losing her resolve quickly.   
She pried her eyes open, the taller man's grip lightening slightly.   
They stared into each other's eyes, for only a second. 

Ivar pulled her away from the wall, with only enough room to spin her around and crush her back against it. He brought his body back against hers and grabbed her by her hair - causing the air from her lungs to be expelled. He pulled her head back, bending her neck at an odd angle, strange strangled noises left her lips. 

"Fucking dirty thing aren't you? Hm?" He growled in her ear, his lips grazing against it.  
Her breath hitched, Ana felt the heat welling up between her thighs and hoped her panties would hide her arousal.  
Ivar grinded himself against her ass, growling as he's did. He pulled himself away from her and grabbed a handful of her ass, painfully squeezing her cheek before giving it a harsh smack.

Ana groaned and her body responded very quickly, her back arching towards ivar.  
He grinned to himself, pushing his face up against her, teeth gnashing against her ear.

"You liked that?" He laughed, biting against her jaw, then down to her neck.  
"You dirty slut."   
All the redhead could do was moan.  
Ivar smacked her ass again, this time with much more force. The loud crack of his hand against her skin giving him more satisfaction.

Freydis hated anything outside of vanilla sex, and ivar put up with it because he figured he'd never land another girl even half as good looking as she was. But here this woman was, enjoying the abuse he so wished he could dish out more often. Her body more than willing to give him the reactions he desired. 

Ivar released his hand from the womans hair, and instead wrapped his arm around the front of her torso, harshly grabbing at her breasts, the other wrapping around her waist trailing towards her panties. She was effectively wrapped against him, still crushed against the wall. The woman let out small whimpers and gasps. Ivar grinded against her again and began to harshly pinch and tug at her nipples through her shirt. 

"You're just letting a stranger do these things to you? You're not even trying to stop me." He laughed into her ear again, taking the lobe into his mouth and sucking, releasing with a wet pop. The woman moaned, this time much louder, arching her ass against ivar. Ivars hand trailed down lower, grabbing the edge of the woman's panties and pulling them to the side. He dipped a finger down to her folds, his touch light as a feather. 

He pulled his hand back up from her panties, giving out a hearty laugh.   
"Look at you, you're fucking soaked!" He chidded, his fingers covered in slick, strings of the lubricating substance connecting his fingers still as he pulled them apart to show her.  
All the woman could do was whimper, but just as soon as ivar felt he had won, she had spoken.

"To bad you're 'boneless'!" she hissed out, giving a small scoff.  
Oh, she was in for it.  
He turned her around and slammed her against the wall, effectively knocking the wind out of her.   
He pinned her against it again with his forearm on her neck.   
He grabbed her arm and jerk it to him, lowering it down to his cock that was painfully strained against his pants.  
"Who's boneless!" He snarled in her face. Her hand frozen over the bulge.

Ivar growled and bit into her neck, leaving lots of sloppy kisses and nips as he made his way to her collar bone.   
The woman let out a throaty moan and her free hand came up to thread her fingers into his long hair, knocking out the tie that kept it out of his face.  
She forcefully grabbed a fistful of his dark locks and brought his lips to her own.  
Ivar removed his arm from her and grabbed either side of her face, deepening the kiss.   
Valerie sucked his lip into her mouth, giving it a light nip as she released it. Ivar kissed her hurriedly, his hands searching for the hem of her shirt.   
Ivar quickly pulled away, lifting her shirt over her head before throwing it somewhere across the room. 

His hands immediately found her breast, groping harshly, pinching her nipples. The woman moaned into ivars mouth, and he smirked as he continued his attack.   
His lips left hers and went back to her neck, then to her collar bone, and then further down still.   
Ivar brought himself to one knee and began kissing and fondling Valerie's breast. He brought one pert pink nipple into his mouth while his other hand kept her other breast equally attended to.   
Ivar bit her nipple and pulled slightly, looking up to steal a glance at her face.   
She looked like she was in pure bliss, he can't remember the last time someone looked so at ease with themself while in his presence.

Ivar gave the woman's other breast the same attention before kissing down her stomach. Small kisses and love bites left in his wake.   
He made his way down to the hem of her panties, looking at her for any sign he should stop before hooking a finger on either side and slowly dragging them down her smooth pale legs.  
She just stared back at him in awe, her green eyes fixed to his own blue ones.  
Her fate was fixed from this point. 

Ivar hiked one leg over his shoulder and gave her one last look before turning his attention to the task at hand.  
He bent his head down and looked at her pussy, she was so wet it had soaked completely through her panties and had left a sticky mess all over her thighs.  
Ivar began sucking the skin inside her thigh, licking over the area and then moving to another spot to repeat the process.  
The woman in front of him began to let out soft mewls and rolled her hips in anticipation.   
Ivar wanted to hear more of her noises.   
He bit down on her thigh forcefully, causing the woman to yelp and grab his hair, but her hips only rolled harder at the assault.

Ivar finally let up on his teasing and brought his mouth to her pussy, giving it a long lick.   
Valerie moaned loudly, her grip in his hair tightening. Ivar immediately latched onto her clit, sucking the small button into his mouth and treating it like a pacifier.   
The woman squealed, grinding herself into ivars face.   
Ivar brought his hand around and inserted a finger, letting up on the sucking for harsh licks instead. He listened as the woman above him became undone, his name and other moans falling from her lips.  
"You taste like valhalla" ivar hummed against her pussy. 

Valerie began to grind against his face like her life depended on it, and ivar kept up his licks and sucks, relishing in her need for him.  
He added another finger and began to harshly curl them inside her walls, feeling them begin to rhythmically spasm as her orgasm approached.   
Ivar removed his mouth and slowed his fingers, earning an exasperated sound from the woman.

"Beg for it." He said lowly, looking up.  
The woman looked down at him, trying to bring her core back to his face.   
"I said beg!" He yelled to her, curling his fingers violently against her walls, causing the woman to throw her head back.

"Please, please ivar I'm s-so close!" She tried to grind herself against his fingers to bring on her orgasm that was just out of reach.   
Ivar smirked and rolled his head to the side, slowing his fingers.

"Please ivar, please" she moaned out hurriedly, trying to urge the man to continue his ministrations.  
Ivar looked down to his fingers that were still hilted to the knuckle in her pussy, her arousal had trickled down his hand all the way to his wrist. 

"Answer my questions and I'll let you cum." Ivar said flatly.  
Val looked down at him, eyes wide, a mix of emotions flashed across her face.  
Ivar decided he wouldn't give her the time to think, he shoved his face back into her pussy and started his fingers back up again.  
He quickly began licking and sucking, wet pops from every time he removed his suction. 

God's, Freydis barely let him fuck her from behind, and here this woman was letting him do anything he wanted to her body. He desperately wanted her to cum for him, to feel his chest swell with the accomplishment of having this woman undone by him, the famed Valkyrie - but he came here on a different mission originally.

"Times running out." Ivar whispered, feeling her walls beginning to pulsate against his fingers.   
He looked up at her one more time, he body writhing, moans flowed from her lips like it would be her saving grace.  
"Last chance." Ivar growled, he started fucking her with his fingers even faster, trying to draw the answer he wanted from her.  
"O.K.!" She yelled back, her chest heaving as if it took everything in her to comply to him.   
Ivar couldn't contain his satisfied smirk and quickly continued his assault, attaching his lips to her once more.

Ivar groaned and hummed, sending vibrations straight up to her clit as he sucked and licked it. He felt her legs begin to shake around his head and her grip on his hair tighten.  
"Fuck, fuck, fuck," she kept repeating as if it were a mantra, ivar felt her walls begin to clamp down on his fingers and he began to curl them even harder in response.  
"Shit! Ivar i-" she couldn't finish her sentence.  
Her walls squeezed down on his fingers and a gush of liquid ran down his chin, she was so tight around him he could barely move the digits lodged inside her pussy.  
Ivar gently sucked as she rolled her cunt against his face, riding out her orgasm. 

Ivar removed her leg from his shoulder and the woman immediately slumped down, unable to hold her weight on her shakey legs.   
Her eyes were closed and a blissful expression covered her face, mouth still open with a small smile.   
Ivar stood up and wiped his mouth with his hand, rubbing her cum off and onto his pants.   
Ivar walked towards the bed with the still scattered photos and grabbed the comforter, throwing it and the photos off the bed.   
Valerie had agreed to answer his questions, he would worry about those later.

He sat down on the bed and looked over at val who was still slumped on the floor, but staring back. She was staring at him like he was prey.  
Ivar began to take off his pull over and along with it his shirt, his muscles twitching in anticipation. Things so far had been going wonderfully, and he was going to take this ride for everything it was worth.  
He tossed the clothes in another direction and then went to work unbuckling his belt.

"What are you doing?" Ivar looked up, the quiet question made him smirk.  
"Oh, you thought we were finished? You thought you could get off that easy? No." Ivar stood up, his buckle clinking with his harsh steps toward the woman.  
He grabbed her by the hair again and dragged her to the bed, throwing her onto it.  
Her body gave a soft bounce as she landed, her hair a mess and her make up slightly running. 

"Hands and knees." Ivar said, undoing his pants, pulling them down and taking them off. Normally he was a bit squeamish when it came to his legs, covered in scars from different surgeries to fix his bones. But as of now he was trying to humiliate her, his legs didn't matter. He wanted to dominate her and use her up in ways he never was able to with anyone else.   
The woman kept her stare, but did as she was told, getting ready to turn around and present herself.

"No, face me." Ivar said, he grabbed his cock and slowly pumped it.   
The woman stared again but did as she was told, turning around to face him.   
He stepped up to her and brought his cock to her lips, and she eagerly opened up, immediately licking the tip.

"Good girl." Ivar cooed, his smirk couldn't have been any wider.   
He stared down and brought his hands up to her hair, pulling it away from her face and keeping it out of the way. 

Ana eagerly started to bob her mouth over ivars cock. God's she missed this, it had been so many years and yet it felt like just yesterday she had been with him - her body responding and moving with his as if they had never been out of synch.   
She hollowed out her cheeks and began to take more and more of him in, only stopping for air when she absolutely had to. His hands had worked their way into her locks and cradled them against her scalp.   
He began to push her head further and further down with every bob.

"You dirty slut, look at you taking my cock so well." He began to grab her head more forcefully and roughly pumped his cock into her mouth.   
He heard her gagging, and gave her a few more rough thrusts before pulling her head off of his cock.  
The womanly quickly sucked in a breath before ivar grabbed her face, pulling her to look at him.

"Open your mouth." Ivar said, his tone was low and dangerous.   
All the woman could do was stare up at him and nods.  
He spit into her mouth, so forcefully that some of it sprayed onto her face.   
"Swallow." He brought his face closer, staring into her eyes. She stared back, captivated.   
Ivar since she had last saw him had really grown as a man. His boyish looks traded in for a more manly structure, his body gained muscle tone and had become more shapely, even the tattoos he had gotten made him seem more as a man than she had last seen.   
His eyes hadn't changed though. God how she wished she could just tell him who she was.  
All she could do was stare into those blue pools.

Ivar smacked her in her face, bringing her back to the reality she was in. She swallowed with a gulp and he smiled down at her.  
Ivar stood back up and pushed her backwards into the bed, crawling over top of her.   
He kissed her, tenderly so. Ana had not expected such a caring kiss from the man that seemed to be enjoying throwing her around so much. Ivar had gotten rougher than she remembered as well apparently.   
Ana had immediately kissed ivar back, moaning into his lips. Her hands made their ways up his arms to his back, gripping onto him for dear life. 

Ivar then sat up, breaking the kiss. He took each of her hands in his, intertwining their fingers, before slowly bringing them back of her head. He began to kiss her again, and readjusted their hands so that he was holding her wrists above her head with one hand. The other hand began to travel down between them.   
Ivar grabbed his cock and began to slide it up and down Valerie's entrance.   
The both moaned into each other's mouths as ivar lined himself up, slowly entering her. Valerie arched her back, rubbing her chest against ivars own, a small gasp escaping her lips.

"Fuck youre tight." Ivar huffed, he went to move his cock slowly out of her but it was as if she didn't want to release him.   
He slowly and carefully began to rock into the woman below him, muffling her moans and gasps with his own lips.   
Ivar lifted up onto his hands and stared down at the woman below him. She was a mess, moans, spit, hair, and he loved it.   
Ivar let out a low snarl as he began to pound into her relentlessly, her tits bouncing with every thrust. 

She moaned out his name, and ivar rutted into her with everything he had. He released her wrist and gripped onto her hips for more leverage, slightly lifting them up with every thrust for a better angle. He saw her legs beginning to shake and her cunt clenched down on him, he released her hips and grabbed the back of her thighs, pushing them towards her midsection and into the bed, effectively spreading her wide open.  
Ivar rammed into Valerie and watched as she came undone, her second orgasm overtaking her body.

Ivar continued his onslaught of deep thrust, searching out his own orgasm. Just as the woman was coming down from her high ivar grabbed her neck and continued to thrust into her.   
He felt his cock beginning to twitch inside of her and hurriedly kept thrusting into her.   
He watched the woman try grab his forearm, her face turning red from the pressure and lack of oxygen.   
Ivar thrusts grew sloppy, his end coming up on him quickly.  
He released the woman who sputtered and coughed, trying to catch her breath.   
Ivar learned down and kissed her deeply, groaning as his cock emptied outside of her, coating her walls in ropes of thick cum.

Ivar sucked in a breath he didn't realize he was holding and fell over on the bed next to the redheaded woman.  
They stared at each other for a long time before the comfortable silence they shared was broken. 

"So what questions did you have?"


	9. White lies

Chapter 8 - white lies 

"So what questions did you have?"

Ivar looked over at the woman, who nonchalantly walked naked around the room, gathering his and her clothes off the floor.   
The thong ivar had planned on stealing gingerly slipped out of his pants and onto the floor.

The woman raised her eyebrows and grabbed them, holding them up in one finger while raising an eyebrow at him.

"Don't tell me the son of ragnar is a thief as well as a pervert?" She chuckled as she continued towards the clothes basket, throwing her clothes and the clothes on the floor surrounding it inside.

Ivar watched as she continued on towards her dresser, choosing a new set of clothes and then sauntering back towards him and the bed. 

"Why are you meeting with my mother?" He asked, his brow furrowing slightly. 

She stopped, bending down and picking up the photos that had been strewn about.

"We were very close at one point, I figured it would be rude to be in such close distance and not catch up with her." Valerie said, continuing with picking up her photos. 

"And all those pictures? Hmm?" Ivar asked, tilting his head.

"Those id rather not explain. There's only so much I can say to you that won't put me in a precarious situation." She said, standing up and putting the photos back in their home.  
"I will say however that your mother and her son's have nothing to fear from me, I wish no harm to any of you." 

The woman crept back towards the dresser, grabbing the stash box and sitting down on the bed next to ivar. 

"So you wish harm on ragnar then?" He asked.  
"I saw the photo with the burn over his face." He stated bluntly, staring down the woman.

She scoffed, opening the box and digging out a few different odds and ends.

"Seems you are a thief, son of ragnar." She glanced down to the baggie of white powder.  
"I knew those eyes weren't wild for me." Glancing back up at him with a small smirk.   
"Ragnar and I have some unfinished business, of which concerns only him and myself."  
She diverted her eyes from ivar and back down to the blunt she was trying to roll.

"Well, if it involves my father, it involves all of us." Ivar hissed at her, snatching the now rolled blunt from her hands. 

Valerie just smirked at him and handed him a lighter. 

"So tense, you'd think some post-coital bliss would've made you less of a dick." She giggled at him, handing him a lighter.

She watched the dark haired man light the blunt and take a long puff, the thick smoke billowing through his lips and all around him.   
She plucked it from his fingers and took her own puff, coughing as she exhaled. 

"Since we're asking questions, how's katya going to feel about this" Val asked, waving her hand around referencing what all just happened.

"Why do you keep calling her that?" Ivar asked, hand held out for his next turn. 

"Because that's her name, duh. We've got a bit of history her and I as well, much less pleasant though." She rolled her head back against the wall, sighing.  
"But since she's here that means I've got a whole new set of problems to deal with. Also, since were friends now - Don't bring her around me, don't mention me to her, not a fucking peep about anything regarding me."   
Val took took the blunt from ivar and took another hit   
"And most importantly, more for your sake than hers, when I see her it won't go well, so I suggest you heed my words."

Valerie handed the blunt back to a fairly baked ivar.  
He took it back from her, a bit more gingerly, and giggled.  
"Oh, were friends now?" Ivar chided. the whites of his eyes blood shot.

"Well, i hope after this we're at least not enemies." She grinned at him.  
They were both feeling the effects, laughing and relaxed, and forgetting about the stress of their lives.

"To be honest, I don't think Freydis would care too much, I'm fairly certain she's cheating on me anyways." Ivar shrugged, leaning back into the pillows and all but melting into Valerie's bed.   
" but i will admit, it would be pretty entertaining to watch you ruff her up a bit." 

Valerie raised one eyebrow, turning on her side towards ivar, who seemed plenty comfy in his spot on her bed.   
"Any idea who with?" She leaned closer, blowing her smoke in his face. 

Ivar sat up quickly, swatting the stale smoke away and coughing a bit.   
"Not really, she texts somebody named 'O' every now and again though" 

Valerie sat straight up on her hands and stared at ivar.   
"What?" Ivar eyed her, it was plain as day the discomfort on the redheads face as she crawled over top of him.

"That man is not to be fucked with, and if she's talking to him - No one is safe. Watch your back lothbrok, that girl is bringing trouble with her." She said as she grabbed his face, making it a serious warning. 

She then reached over and took ivars hand, still straddling him, and spoke.

"You can never trust katya but - you can always trust V or A for what it's worth." She said, lifting his finger with the tattoo on it up and into a view. 

Ivar snatched his hand away and looked at the woman with widened eyes. He felt freaked out and wasn't certain what her reference or purpose was besides not to trust Freydis. All he knew was that he was uncomfortable and wanted to leave.  
He knocked Valerie off of him and onto the bed, quickly scooting out of it. He grabbed his bag and started for the door.

"See you around lothbrok." Val had called to him. He didn't even stop to turn around, he needed out of there. 

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

"She said trust V and A?" Hvitserk asked, ivar didn't know what to do with what all had just happened, so he gathered up his brothers.   
He explained all that had happened and they were all stuck.   
"And you fucked her! Man, maybe I should drop by too!" Hvitserk chided.  
Ivar just rolled his eyes.  
They all had lots of questions, and very different approaches. They eventually settled on 2 things: don't tell ragnar, and confrontation.   
They planned to show up, possibly using excessive force, and interrogate her.

The issue with all of this was the fact that she had a high status, and they couldn't just kidnap her, although that would be easiest. They also couldn't tell ragnar, even if he would agree it would be a political shit storm between Lothbrok LLC and Northman Enterprise, which they didn't need.

It was settled, and their plan was put into place.

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

Val was walking back from the club, it had been some weeks since ivars unexpected visit and she realized what an absolutely fucked position she was now in.   
Her and Harald had quite a heated argument when she told him what happened. She didn't know what else to do.   
They had to come up with quite a few back up plans and escape routes - the Rus were a much bigger syndicate than vestifold and kattegat could handle, and with Freydis and the lothbroks consistent contact, there was a large chance things could go sideways very quickly. 

They had already worked so hard on this new life and identity, and there was too many things coming into play that could ruin everything. 

She continued down the street and up to her apartment, putting her key into the door and heading up to her flat.  
She walked in and threw her bag onto the couch and made her way to the kitchen.   
Grabbing her phone she put on some music and began to rummage through her fridge, looking for something cook.   
She decided on breakfast food.

She grabbed a handful of things and sat them on the counter, singing along with the music as she did.  
She was playing some of sigurd' s old music from highschool. He had always made music as a hobby more than as a career choice, but that never stopped him from putting out music continuously over the years. 

She smiled to herself, thinking of him as she continued cooking.

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

The boys had made quick work of getting into the apartment. They had buzzed different flats until one of them believed their lie of forgetting their keys.   
Hvitserk was giddy, a bounce in his step and a lollipop cracking around his mouth as they made their way to Valerie's flat, ubbe and sigurd less than pleased to be there, and ivar was apprehensive. Things could go south very quickly. Ivar had at least planned on showing up again when the kid was at daycare for the time being. 

As they made their way to the door they stopped, they heard someone softly singing from the other side of the door.  
They all turned to sigurd.

"She's listening to your songs dude!" Hvitserk half whispered half yelled. A stupid smirk on his face.  
"Maybe she's got a thing for the ragnarssons huh?" 

Sigurd scoffed and stepped away from the door, looking over to his brothers.

"Well, she knows ivar, he should be the one to be at the door." Ubbe said.

The brothers nodded their agreements and backed away from the door, making room for ivar and hiding away so as not to be seen.

Ivar cleared his throat and made his way to the door, giving three sharp knocks, and adjusting himself.

The singing stopped and he heard shuffling from behind the door, before it opened slightly, the chain lock still on.

"Oh, hello. What are you doing here?" The red head asked, a bewildered look on her face.

"Yeah, we need to talk." Ivar said, a bit harsher than be meant.   
The redhead stood by the door a second, eyeing ivar, before closing it and undoing the chain on the door. 

"Come in i guess, I'm cooking, are you hungry?" She asked with a small smile.

As soon as ivar had walked in, his brothers quickly shoved their way in too, ubbe shutting the door and locking it. 

Valerie had a look of what can only be described as pure panic, before quickly hardening her face.   
The brothers immediately surrounded her, ivar standing a few feet from her, ubbe against the counter, sigurd standing against the wall leading to the hallway, and Hvitserk behind her snooping through what she was cooking. 

"Did ragnar send you?" She said cooly, but she couldnt hide the anger in her voice. Obviously not happy that she had been ambushed in a way.

"No, we did this on our own, he doesn't know we're here. " ubbe said, relaxed and level headed.

The woman glared over to ivar before turning around, gently shoving Hvitserk away from the food she was making and continuing her task.

"So why are you here?" She was trying to hide her worry behind being overly interested in her cooking.   
Hvitserk stood over her shoulder, still eyeing the food.

"I told my brothers about what i found, and felt like we needed some - clarification." Ivar said. His voice was monotone but he delivered it with an air of a threat.

The woman scoffed, plating her food, before going back to the fridge and grabbing more of the same ingredients.   
She walked back over to the counter and sat the things down, handing Hvitserk the plate she had made for myself.

"Just eat it." She said in almost a whisper.  
Hvitserk snatched the plate and hopped over to the couch to begin eating, happy as a clam.   
Valerie turned back to ivar, a small scowl on her face.

"Well, start talking."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sounds stupid, but i allways imagined sigurds music as something close to cavetown or rex orange county.   
> What do y'all think modern au sigurds music would be like?


	10. The jig is up

Chapter 9 - the jig is up

Sigurd stared at the woman as she was talking to his brothers.   
She seemed so familiar, but he couldn't place it. He watched as she interacted with Hvitserk, how angry she looked at ivar and ubbe - it all seemed too normal to him.   
Sigurd kept to his place against the wall, just watching, he could still hear his old songs from highschool playing quietly in the background on the womans phone. 

"Why don't we start with how you know our mother." Ubbe said, still lazily leaned against the counter, resting his head on his hand. 

"Why don't you all go fuck yourself. What would happen if I called Harald, hmm?" Valerie hissed back, if he didn't know any better, he could've sworn Val had grown fangs in her anger.

"You're not going to do that though, you'd be just as fucked as we would if anyone were to find out about this." Ivar replied.   
He had that tell tale look on his face when he began his mental chess against somebody.

"Why haven't you asked your mother?"   
She turned back to the stove and continued cooking, a much larger batch than last time. 

"Just answer the question." Ubbe said, sounding almost bored.

"No." The redhead said flatly. Continuing with what she was doing. 

Ubbe stood up from his spot on the counter and moved his jacket out of the way, revealing the gun tucked into his pants.

"Start talking." 

Ivar looked slightly alarmed, ubbe was always the level headed brother, seeing this show of aggression was a bit unusual for him, especially so early on. 

Valerie laughed, a loud hearty laugh. She bent over the counter trying to catch her breath- acting as if she's just heard the funniest joke on earth.

"How about you go fuck yourself ubbe, and while your at it, why don't you ask your brother about his girlfriend." Val continued to laugh, and all the brothers eyes immediately honed in on ivar. 

He scowled, two could play at that game. 

"What is she talking about?" Hvitserk asked through bites of his food.  
Ivar went to speak again but was cut off.

"Oh, so you tell them about me but not about katya? Seems a bit unfair don't you think." She asked, the amount of bitchiness in her voice was unmatched. 

"Katya works for the Rus, and has been fucking him for Intel. Kinda sad really." She smirked again.   
Ivar ground his teeth together, his face slightly reddening.

"You've got no proof!" He hissed at her. He came here to interrogate her and she flipped the tables completely, rallying his brothers against him.   
She was smart, he'd give her that, but he wasn't going to let her win 

"I've got plenty." She said, turning around and putting the food on another plate, strutting across the kitchen to the living room, handing the plate to Hvitserk who just smiled and went back to eating. 

"We can deal with ivar and Freydis later, we came here for her." Sigurd piped up, reminding the brothers of their initial intent. 

They turned to the flaxen mop of hair and nodded their agreements.  
Ivar was pissed to be made the butt of the argument, and he was waiting to see how this mental game of chess was going to play out. He has to make his moves count.

"What about the photos?" Ivar asked, trying to conceal the slight smile that was threatening to show his smug feeling of catching her off guard.  
Val's face dropped, if only for a second, before she hardened back up, she probably expected him to ask that.   
'What a shit poker face' ivar thought to himself. 

"I think it's time you left." The woman said bitterly. Staring ivar down, not a muscle in her face moving.  
"Not until we've got some understanding of what you want with our family." He said with just as much venom.

The redhead began to pace back and forth between sigurd's place by the hallways, and his and ubbes place by the countertops, scowling all the way from one end to the other.

"Let's come to an understanding then, you all fuck off, and I'll give you some peace of mind." She raised an eyebrow with her offer, face still trying to hide the swelling rage she felt.   
How dare they just show up to her home like this, corner her, threaten her. She felt the need to retaliate but she needed to be smart, she had a kid to worry about - the whole reason she didn't want to even move back and get mixed into all of this shit. 

"And what understanding would that be, sweet cheeks?" Hvitserk finally piped up, bringing his now clean plate past her and to the sink, leaning against it. 

"I'll give you just a bit of insight, and the promise that I won't tell Harald what you've all done-"  
All the brothers stiffened at the mention of the man's name, they knew it was a big risk doing this, especially on their own. They had just been hoping the woman would have too much pride to tell her boss about the little stunt they pulled on her.   
"And all of you, except Hvitserk, stay the fuck away from me. Or I will tell Harald, and there will be some more unsavory things to come."

They all sent a questioning glance to Hvitserk, who looked just as confused as they were before looking back to the woman whose face might as well have been made of stone. Ivar sighed.  
He knows she's not bluffing, attacking a v.p. is as good as starting a war and they all knew it, they had enough going on as it was, they didn't need Harald against them now. 

"I will give you one tidbit, just so you don't leave empty handed. My name isn't Valerie."   
The boys knew they were outdone, they would be stupid not to take the offer and just leave.  
Ivar gritted his teeth, he lost. She told him that just to tease him, because even though their plan was half cocked, she wasn't intimidated enough to give them any answers - She made them leave with more questions. 

They all turned to leave, but Val stops them as they're about to shuffle out the door.   
"Oh, Hvitserk!" She calls, running down the hall and then back out to the doorway.  
She lifts up onto her toes and whispers something into his brother's ear, his jaw drops and he smiles at the woman, who was stuffing something into his pocket. 

She hurriedly began to shoo them out, preparing to close the door.  
As she waited for the messy mop of blonde hair to make it's way past her, he stopped and leaned in to whisper to her.  
Valerie still had a scowl on her face, but didn't move away from him.

"When are you going to tell them you're not dead?"

Sigurd gave her a small reassuring smile, but she looked like she was going to be sick. The redhead had eyes so wide it was like a deer in the headlights as she grabbed his shoulder harshly and tried to physically throw him out of the flat. 

"They may not have recognised you, but I spent too many years as your friend and not just a warm body to not remember you." He whispered as he allowed her to slam the door in his face.

The brothers gave him a look as he shrugged, and walked past them.

"So, what's that little gift in your pocket brother?" Ubbe said, eyeing Hvitserk with a curious smirk.

Hvitserk gave out the brightest smile the brothers had seen for a long time, as he reached out and pulled out a thong.   
Ivar eyes widened, it was the same one he tried to steal before.  
What a bitch, what a smart, petty, bitch.  
She's going to shove the fact that she had much more control of the situation than they considered, and wave it right back in ivars face, even rejecting him without using so many words.  
This game of chess would continue, and ivar wanted to make sure he would win it.

He looked over to sigurd, who seemed to be lost in thought, and continued out of the apartment.

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

"Why are we doing this." Ubbe questioned, pushing his food around his plate in the kitchen as his mother came around with different boxes, placing each in front of each brother.

"Because it'll be fun!" Aslaug cooed, earning a unanimous groan from her gathered son's. 

She wasn't technically lying, she would send them to the actual company after she had Helga take a look at the samples and send her the results. She had sent in Alexei's within a day or so of Ana giving them to her, but finding an excuse for the boys that was believable took her a bit longer.

She passed each of them their respective kits. Aslaug had finally decided on those popular ancestry tests as to avoid suspicion.  
They all swabbed their cheeks and put them in the boxes, handing them back to their mother, seemingly uninterested.   
They all left as quickly as she had managed to gather them, with the exception of sigurd. 

Aslaug looked up at her son, who was staring at her and yet staring past her, deep in thought.

"Is something bothering you dear?" She murmured, bringing her mug of coffee to her lips, eyes trained on him.

"Can we talk, privately?" He asked, breaking away his stare and looking around to make sure no one else was around.

"Of course dear, what's troubling you?" She asked, setting down her mug.  
Aslaug wouldn't lie to herself, she knew sigurd and her didn't have a very close relationship, and it was rare that he ever asked for her guidance.  
She got up and walked towards his old room, and he followed suit. 

She sat herself at the desk chair he had, while sigurd sat at the foot of his bed, his head hanging down to his chest.  
Aslaug just waited patiently till he was ready to speak.

"How long have you known Anastasia was alive?" Her son whispered.  
Aslaugs eyes widened, but quickly settled back, she stood up and walked over to him, kneeling on the floor and taking his hands in her own.

"Sigurd, look at me." She raised her hand to her son's face, finding his eyes.  
"I'm so sorry, I couldn't tell you, I couldn't tell anyone - there's a reason she's stayed hidden, and even just us knowing is putting her in jeopardy." Aslaug said quietly. Sigurds wet eyes met her own.

"How did you find out?" She asked, almost silently.   
Sigurd straightened himself up and rubbed his hands over his face and through his hair, sniffing and then giving a huff.

"Dad told us to follow you the first day you met with her, to make sure you were safe" he said, looking over to his mother, and then back up at the wall before continuing on  
" then a follow was put on her-" sigurd sighed, as his mother listened closely   
" I guess ivar fucked her at some point, and today we tried to confront her because he found family photos while snooping through her things."  
Aslaug eyebrows were high on her face as she listened to him, trying to register all that he said to her.   
"And apparently freydis is working with the Rus, at least that's what Ana was hinting towards." Sigurd continued.  
"I'm not surprised my brothers didn't notice. Even if she looks different it's still her, I could tell by the way she sung over my music she was playing, and how she tried to piss ivar off, how feisty she was - the way she was trying to take care of Hvitserk while she was fighting with ivar- they've always been her favorite. Even if it's been years it's like nothing's changed, even if my brothers don't know it. I've spent too long being her friend to not notice." 

Sigurd fell backwards onto the bed and Aslaug stood up.  
"We need to keep this between us, at least for now." She said over her shoulder as she made her way to the door, leaving sigurd to his thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm actually fairly happy with this chapter  
> Hopefully things will be a bit more fast paced from here development wise   
> Please leave a comment and let me know what you think 😁


	11. All buisness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if it's a bit boring, smut next chapter thooo

Chapter 10 - all buisness

Ivar hadn't had sex since Val, he could bring himself to. It didn't seem to matter how many times Freydis offered herself, made the first move, pulled out all the stops she knew, he just wasn't interested in her. It wasn't her fault at all, ivar just couldn't bring himself to feel what he used to for her, everything was so dull when Valerie wasn't in his thoughts.  
This isn't fair to Freydis.

He turned over to the blonde in his bed, texting away as if nothing was different - like she couldn't tell they had grown apart or feel the distance that was between them.   
Ivar groaned and sat up, rubbing his face and pulling down his mouth as he prepared himself. 

"Freydis?" 

"Hmm?" 

"It's over." Ivar stared directly in front of him, not daring to look over at the flurry of movement he felt next to him. 

"What do you mean it's over!? Ivar, we're soul mates, we're meant to be together!" She pawed at him, trying to get him to face her.  
"Ivar I love you." She pleaded, sniffling softly.

Ivar grabbed the hand she had on his shoulder and threw it off of him, getting up.

"I'm going to smoke a cigarette, when I come back I want you and your stuff out of my flat."

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

K: he just broke up with me 

O: sounds like a start, we should meet soon and discuss things

K: wow, not even an "I'm sorry". I actually liked him.   
Will meet with you soon.

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

Ivar sat in his chair scowling, he and his brothers save for sigurd were all at Hvitserk flat hanging out. Ivar really didn't want to be around anybody, but he felt worse being left with his thoughts.  
He had been slowly crumbling in a way he never expected to, every dream or thought he had about Ana was now being replaced by this redhead who's presence seemed to linger and torture him. He felt as if he'd been poisoned by her, an infection that spread to the darkest reaches of his mind.  
He often caught himself thinking about her, at least in some capacity. Her perfume, the way she walked, her voice, or even the way her nose slightly crinkled when she was really mad or had a really big smile.

"Earth to ivar!" His brother chuckled, hitting him in the knee with a beer can.   
Ivar jolted slightly, being shook from his thoughts and brought back to the present. He silently cursed himself for daydreaming about Val once again. 

"Anyways, like I was saying-" ubbe said, looking between his two younger brothers.  
"Father is setting up some meeting with Harald, it seems like a cease-fire, we're to offer our services in exchange for being able to use some of their docks and domestic transports." He continued.

Ivar was so out of it now that he could barely talk buisness, and he hated that. He felt so weak, he had let a woman, whom he had only spoken with a handful of times, completely take over his mind.

"And what services would that be?" Ivar asked, still a bit more absent than usual.

"Not sure, everything is up for negotiation I'm sure, but father wants us to be prepared for anything." 

The boys continued with their night, drinking and half-heartedly discussing business matters. What they weren't aware of was the fact that Ragnar had made contact with Harald after confirming Freydis' relationship to the Rus. 

Her being so close to their family had put Ragnar and his business in a precarious position and he was none too thrilled about it. Oddly enough Harald seemed more than happy to help him with his little issue and even recommended a negotiation. 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend' he supposed.

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

Valerie sat in her chair next to Harald, awaiting the arrival of Ragnar and his herd of children - even Bjorn and Halfdan were going to be present.  
She had been fairly upfront about the things that had happened between her and the ragnarssons to Harald, he was not only her boss but her only safety net. She had no one else. Honesty was always the best policy ironically enough between the two of them, and she could only keep her and Alexei safe is he at least had some idea about what was going on. 

Harald was obviously none too pleased, chewing her a new asshole on more than one occasion, but above all he was an opportunist. And his waiting had paid off.   
Even with Val's multiple fuck up, being too soft hearted when it came to her old life, Ragnar had played into his hand exactly as he had hoped he would.

Harald could make a profit, keep his territory safe, possibly add to it, and as the cherry on top - keep the woman who had helped him build his empire as much if not more than his brother had.  
Even when she was an absolute thorn in his side, still making mistakes expected of younger people - She was an absolute asset to him and his buisness. And while he cared for her, he had a syndicate to run. 

Val continued to nitpick different things in her nervousness; readjusting her hair or her baseball cap, playing with the hem of her shirt or her shorts, buttoning and unbuttoning the shirt, even playing with her shoe laces.   
Her initial look for the day was very tomboy, androgynous if you would, unexpectedly however Harald decided to tell her last minute about the meeting. Whether this would be a test to her skill or a dick move, she would find out later.  
Her anxiety made her feel like bile would rise, she had dressed very similar to this before, in men's clothes, usually stealing sigurds since he was closest to her size.

She allways dressed provocatively as a distraction, which had worked on all but sigurd unfortunately. She was begging whatever power above there may be that this would somehow not set them on her trail.  
She kept twirling in her chair and fiddling with her clothes, avoiding Harald eyes that were burning into her until Bjorn and Halfdan made their way into the lounge. 

Harald had immediately shot out of his chair and strided to his brother, who was much tanner than when he had left.   
They exchanged pleasantries before they both made their way back to her.   
She nodded to Bjorn before she all but jumped on Halfdan, clinging to him like a monkey.  
He grabbed her and heartily laughed, Halfdan was really her only friend since everything had happened all those years ago and they truly cherished each other. 

"My Russian doll!" He's whispered into her ear sweetly, slightly nuzzling against her cheek.

For all the gruesome things she had seen Halfdan do, his sweet side always won her over. She gave a gentle chuckle at the affection, a blush tinging her sun kissed cheeks. She pulled away gently from him, staring at his smiling face when she heard a grunt that pulled her from their tender moment. 

Her eyes met those of ragnar, who wore a self satisfied smirk on his face.   
Val huffed and slithered down off of Halfdan about as gracefully as she had jumped onto him, her eyes scanned past ragnar, the rest of his children filed in behind him.  
Val tried not to tense up, just their presence stirred a mix of emotions in her that she didn't have the time or patience to deal with.

Glaring at the floor, she quickly made her way back to her place next to Harald and threw her feet on the table with a thud. The other men found their chairs and made themselves comfortable. 

"Ragnar, son's, welcome back."" Harald said, his grin was as dazzling as always but Val knew it was very forced.   
"Where should we begin?" 

Ragnar threw his head to the side and gave out a slight groan, he loved to talk buisness - didn't love hearing it talked to him as much. 

"I guess we should get the legalities out of the way." He grunted.   
Val had automatically stood up, grabbing her own set of files while ragnar passed theirs over.   
She silently went to work, intent to see how their buisness worked from the little pertinent info she skimmed through to make sure their temporary merging of transport was good enough for any agency that wanted to look into them, and what needed to be cooked up and modified. 

As she silently typed away on her laptop, the men in the room continued to talk shop. 

" So, for our 'legalities', we ask a 25% royalty on all imports and exports." 

Val had caught that, and stopped typing momentarily. Harald wasn't asking a lot by any amount, for the Lothbrok's to use their tradeports that was a pretty small figure, generous even.  
She knew things would go well when she heard ragnar snort. 

The boys all sat silently, there out of appearances as opposed to actual requirement. 

" Seems a bit steep for a few docks, don't you think harald?" Ragnar said, his face turned serious. 

Val continued her work, but kept an ear on the conversation, not wanting to miss anything too important.   
The two of them continued with their back and forth until she saw something she didn't expect in the data she was compiling.   
She shot an arm out at Halard, who was mid sentence. The room went silent as she showed him her screen.

"Valerie, you know I don't so finances, what am I looking at?"   
She looked from Harald, to ragnar, and then back again. 

"Ragnar, are you hiding any extra funds inside of the files you gave me? Anything that's not supposed to be here, or are these clean?" Valerie asked. 

"No." Ragnar said bluntly, but his eyes were still trained on her own.

She hummed nervously. This was about to be a shit show.   
"Well, if that's so, then you're stealing fractions of a cent for every dollar you would be putting through our transports, so that 25% of what we asked would actually only be about 10% after you pocket the excess." She said, Harald and ragnars eyebrows both went high on their head. 

The bald man scowled, while Haralds tattooed face beamed. The ragnarssons also did not look too happy, whether they were privy or not to this, they were still guilty under ragnar. 

"So well bump that to 50% now, just to be nice. Thank you Valerie." 

Val couldn't help but give Harald a small smile, buusness school payed off.   
They continued to talk about things between them, and Val kept small notes so she would know what to enter into the books and what associates and deals she would have to meet with and make so that things between them would run smoothly. 

She looked up at the man in front if her. Sitting directly across from her was Hvitserk, who shot her a wink and a winning smile.   
She slightly rubbed her legs together.  
Danish healthcare was a bit harder to maneuver through, especially as an 'immigrant' and it had been months now of no meds.   
God, she felt ridiculous, it was like every looks or light touch seemed to set her off again.

"Val?" 

"Huh?!" Valerie brought her attention back to Harald, who had apparently been trying to get her attention.

"The files, on Freydis please?" 

"Oh, of course."   
She hurriedly handed over the files to be given out so that everyone could be briefed and on the same page. 

"Real name katya, seen photographed as far back as 6 years ago with a man named 'Oleg', aka the prophet. Runs a fairly large part of the Rus, blah, blah, blah,." Harald rattled out, skimming and going through what Valerie had so graciously highlighted for him.

"So in laments terms, shes a spy, a rat, whatever you wanna call her. She should be detained on sight, permission to use excessive force."  
He continued, sounding bored.  
And in truth, he was - he had known all of this for years now, thanks to Val. But since things got more complicated with her injecting herself in with the Lothbrok's and Valerie's return, he had to make this shared knowledge.


	12. Bad ideas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smut, you've been warned

Chapter 11 - 

Everyone had stood up to leave, and Valerie immediately made a B line for Halfdan. She caught him by surprise, wrapping her arm behind him to grab at the neck of his shirt while her other hand made it's way to his waist line.

"Easy tiger!" Halfdan jumped at the sudden attack, quickly flipping around.   
He grabbed her shoulder and leaned down to her.

"Not today." He said softly, with an apologetic smile.

"Bjorn and I have other buisness to attend to, and i don't have the time to spare" He flipped his hair out of his tattooed face.

"Please Halfdan! I'm going crazy!" She half whispered and half yelled.

"Harald' s having trouble finding a way to forge more documents so I can get a consistent prescription. Just help me scratch this itch before I do something stupid!" She begged, she was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible with the large number of people that were shuffling slowly out of the room. 

"I'll come over tomorrow if you can wait that long." He smiled down to her, softly moving her hair out of her face.

With a longing glance, Valerie silently accepted that her safe choice was no longer an option. She looked over her shoulder to see if everyone else had left. The only person still in the room was Harald, who was busy on the phone and sorting through the paperwork she had earlier compiled. 

She huffed and made her way towards the door in a hurry, she needed to get home.   
She made her way out of the lounge and onto the street to see Ragnar and his son's still standing outside, all with cigarettes in their hands.   
Valerie's eyes met ivars, and she sucked in a breath.

God, she needed to leave. She needed to go now. She couldn't let some guy ruin everything she had worked for, even if deep down most of it was for him. She let her gaze linger a bit to long before looking away. The youngest son had a scowl set on his face as he blew out the smoke and looked over to the rest of his brothers.

Before either of them even knew what was going on Hvitserk had immediately bounced over to her and threw an arm around her shoulders once he noticed she was the one who had walked outside. 

"Hey there Red." He cooed into her ear, his nose slightly rubbing against her cheek.  
"When are you gonna invite me over?" He quipped, a small chuckle rolling from his lips as he exhaled his own smoke.  
His brothers and father's just stared at them, and Val could swear she could feel ivars eyes burning a hole through his brother.   
Before she could stop herself, her mouth had already began moving. 

"Right now?"  
It was more of a statement than a question, and she watched as his green eyes darkened as she said the words.   
Without a second to spare he turned around with her still under his arm and began walking her down the street, flicking his cigarette.

Ragnar chuckled as he watched his son walk off with the woman. He had a sneaking suspicion she wasn't all she seemed, but if ragnar knew one thing, it was that patience is a virtue.  
He looked over to his son, all with different reactions to what had played out within the few seconds of the woman walking out of the club.

Ivars stare never left them until they made it out of sight, more venom than usual gracing his features, sigurd looked worried, and ubbe seemed more affected by his brothers than at the situation.   
Ragnar pushed himself off of the SUV and opened the drivers side door.

"You two go ahead, I need to speak with ivar." Sigurd said to nobody in particular.  
All eyebrows raised and looked to him, but none of them said anything.   
Ubbe and ragnar got into the vehicle without a word, leaving the two brothers alone on the sidewalk.

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

Valerie couldn't stop the part of her brain that had been slowly taking back over. It was compulsive, intruding - she couldn't think of anything else. She needed to be touched more than she felt the need to breath and that scared her to no end. She remembered who she was before she had ran away, and hated herself for it. She remembered how much she had hurt the people around her with her proclivities, and yet no matter what she did She couldn't seem to stop herself.

She was lost in her thoughts, mentally at war inside herself, when she felt Hvitserk hand travel from her shoulders down to her lower back. His fingers slowly edging to the top of her ass, caressing back and forth.  
She held in a small gasp, and was quickly losing any resolve and they got painstakingly closer to her apartment.   
He wasn't going to try anything in broad daylight was He? Not that she really cared, she knew she had done much worse under the sun.

She looked at up the man who towered over her, and he stared back with those stunning eyes.   
Damn ragnar and his genetics, all of his son's were absolutely gorgeous and she silently cursed the powers that may be for placing these perfectly sculpted men in her path once again.  
He gave her another smirk before gently lacing his arm around her waist.

"We're here." He said, bringing his face back down to her own, laying a surprisingly tender kiss to her temple.  
She shook her head, trying to rattle her thought back down somehow, before she made her way to the door, typing in the code.  
A shrill buzz sounded, unlocking the apartment complex and Hvitserk opened the door for her.  
"A true gentleman." She scoffed, walking in.

As they made their way to her flat, her heart began to beat at a frightening pace. Hvitserk had been silent the entire time, it was like a predator waiting on its prey to finally succumb, and give up. She remembered the sweet, doting boy from when they were teens, allways with a smile, a snack, and never shutting up. The man he had become was very different from the boy she once knew. 

She put the key into the knob and swung the door open. She only hand enough time to take a breath before Hvitserk grabbed her from behind, not unlike how she had grabbed Halfdan earlier.

"You have no clue how long I've wanted to do this." He rasped into her ear, one hand harshly squeezing her breast while the other was immediately working on the buttons of her shorts.  
"Watching you walk around like you own the world, thinking your untouchable. I'm going to ruin you."  
She heard the door slam, and then just as quickly as the sound had hit her, the buttons on her shirt were being popped and ripped off.

He quickly tugged her shorts off, his mouth latching onto her throat.  
She couldn't help the moan that rattled out of her throat, her hands now happily helping him get her shirt off of her.  
He chucked and his hand released her breast, traveling painfully slow to her throat.   
He turned her around, and attack her mouth, hungrily kissing her like she was life itself.   
She smiled into the kiss, responding to his hunger with her own.

She threw her arms around his neck and snaked her hands into his hair, gripping the base of his head trying to deepen the kiss.  
She felt the growl rumble from his chest as his hands gripped the back of her thighs, quickly hoisting her up onto his hips.

"End of the hall." She mumbled between kisses.   
He huffed his affirmation, and as quickly as he could manage he walked them down to her bedroom.   
He threw her none too gently onto the bed, staring down at her as he palmed himself through his jeans.  
She sat up and began to crawl towards him, her eyes wide with adoration.

"Come here" he instructed, his eyes looked like a wolf, mesmerizing her. She was not used to feeling like prey, and it increased the heat in between her legs at the thought of him devouring her like the animal he was.  
He had already untucked his belt and was working on his pants before she could finally reach out and touch him.  
A groan was strangling from his throat as her hand began to undo his pants the rest of the way, her lips kissing and licking his stomach as slow as her hands.  
She slowly trailed her hands back up, grabbing his white shirt and pulling into off of him.  
'Allways with the white t." She thought to herself, some things don't change.

Valerie sat up on her knees, her kisses trailing higher and higher up until he finally had enough and leaned down to kiss her from her perch on the edge of the bed. He slowly pushed her back as he crawled over her, caging her body with his own.  
She arched her back into him, the lack of attention to her body was driving her wild, and yet it was making her even more aroused from the anticipation of it.   
He pulled away and grabbed her head, wiping her hair out of her face.

"Are you gonna be a good girl?" He whispered, his voice husky, and his eye hiding something.  
It was all she could do to not melt into a puddle underneath the man, nodding vigorously.  
He smiled and gave a small laugh and snaked a hand underneath her back.  
He immediately flipped them over, placing himself comfortably underneath her.

"Get up here." He said, his face lost all playfulness.  
She just stared at him, it took her a second to register his words in her lusty haze.  
Crack  
She squealed, surprised by the smack that had just landed on her ass.

"Don't make me repeat myself." His eyes now dark, warning her not to act bratty.  
She quickly removed her panties and crawled up over his face, her dripping sex hovering just a breath away from his lips.

"Start counting."  
Again, she was confused, but immediately was drawn away from her thought when his lips touched her aching clit.  
He wasn't interested in easing her into anything, his tongue working quickly and setting a punishing pace.   
She gripped her headboard to try to steady herself. Hvitserk had allways had a talent for eating pussy, but dear god had the years been good to this man - if his skills weren't god tier before, they definitely were now. 

She couldn't help her legs from shaking, trying so hard to stop clenching her muscle as he continued the assault on her pussy, his mouth expertly switching between sucking and licking - choosing between painfully slow licks and absolutely wet hurried passes of his tongue.  
Before she had enough brainpower to question him he smacked her ass again.  
The sound resonating as she squealed and squirmed again, he growled and his hands gripped each ass cheek painfully to keep her flush against his face.  
"One!" She whimpered, she couldnt will her mind to work anymore, stuck between the fast approaching orgasm, the sight of the man below her feasting on her pussy, and the pain of the blow he had just landed.

He smacked her other cheek this time, much harder.   
"Two!!"  
She squirmed again, and he didn't seem to appreciate it, switching his approach and pushing her forward so the she was leant over him with nowhere to move to.   
He snaked an arm above her to keep her pussy hovered over his face while he continued his assault.   
Val started breathing fast, her hips rutting against his face as her orgasm was on the brink.   
He moaned into her pussy as he continued his assault, sending her over the edge.  
She wailed as her orgasm over took her, he legs shaking violent over top of the man, threatening to give out on her.  
As soon as Hvitserk realized she was cumming all over his face, his hands went back to smacking her, painting her ass red as the waves of pleasure courses through her body.

She just screamed louder as the stimuli was too much for her to handle, her brain going haywire.  
As soon as her pussy stopped throbbing and her orgasm had finished she slumped backwards onto the bed next to Hvitserk, trembling from the attention she had just received.   
Her body squirmed and hitched as Hvitserk lifted himself up, staring down at her.

"You didn't count, you said you'd be my good girl, and you didn't count." He whispered to her, grabbing a handful of red hair and forcing her to face him.  
His eyes were deadly, and for a second she thought she should be scared, but she just felt another wave of arousal hit her instead.  
He let her hair go and grabbed her arm instead, lifting her to her knees.

" You're gonna have to make it up to me" he said, laying back down and pulling her back on top of him.  
He gently glided his hands  
from her sex, up her stomach, between her breast, and finally to her throat - Where he wrapped his fingers delicately around it.  
He pulled her to him, giving her another soul stealing kiss as he lined up the head of his cock with her soaked entrance. 

Hvitserk slowly entered her, breaking the kiss as the both gasped in unison.   
"Shit red, you're so tight." He rasped out, stealing another kiss from the woman.  
Valerie began to slowly raise her hips, and just as slowly bring them back down, trying to adjust to how ridiculously thick the ragnarson below her was.   
Hvitserk removed the hand from her neck and brought them down to her chest, groping and kneeding the soft flesh, making sure to give her pert pink nipples ample attention as she dragged herself up and down his cock.

"That's it, That's a good girl" he cooed, as the woman began speeding up her bounces.  
Hvitserk gripped onto her ample hips and pulled her down forcefully with every bounce, gently adding a slow grind to her riding.   
They melted into each other, their body's synching up and matching each other's movements.   
Valerie could not stop the noises that seemed to pour out of her, each pass over his length stealing her ability to quiet herself. He kept his one hand firmly in her hip, still forcing her to meet his own in their coupling, and his other hand began to snake back up to her hair. 

"Cum for me again" he whispered, sitting up to bring his face to her neck, leaving bites and kisses while his hips carried on with her own.   
Valerie couldn't tell if it was just his body, or the way he looked at her, but she felt another flush of heat hit her belly. She could only moan in response, her hips moving faster with his own.   
Hvitserk made his way from her neck to her tits, before releasing one with a pop and bringing his mouth to her own again.  
They quickly swallowed each other's breaths and noises, trying to catch each others kiss. 

He pulled on the red locks once more and forced the woman to bring her forehead to his own, before catching her in another kiss.  
"Look at me when you cum" he whispered again, his voice low and yet so filled with need.   
He sped up his own hips, while still keeping his eyes glued to her own. He released her hip just barely to sneak his thumb between them, and began rubbing gentle circles over her clit.

And that was all it took. Valerie attempted to throw her head back, but hvitserk kept his grip on her, not daring to let her look away for even a second.  
"That's my good girl" he cooed to her once more.  
Before she could finish her orgasm, she heard the man below her growl, and then suddenly she was underneath him.   
She was to incoherent to even protest the sudden change, and her thought immediately went to the feeling of him rutting into her. His pace was punishing, like that of a true beast.   
She cried out from the overstimulation but made no moves to try to fight the man off of her, and then suddenly he was off of her. 

She tried her best to look up at the man, who was currently stroking himself overtop of her. Just a few more strokes, and his seed shot out onto her in thick, warm ropes. He fell onto the bed next to her and let out a long, contented sigh, before snaking his arms around her.

"We should do this more often.


	13. Why can't it be easy?

Chapter 12

"Follow me."   
Sigurd didn't even wait for his brother to respond before walking down the street. Ivar scowled and stayed put for a second, but once he realized that his brother was not going to stop, he finally started to move.  
They walked a few blocks down the street, coming towards the old bakery.  
Ivar stumbled for a second, watching as his brother sat down at a table without a second thought.  
Gods, how many years had it been since he had been here? Ivar had refused to even come near the place if he could avoid it after she left, let alone get a table there.  
He looked at his brother, who was staring at him from his seat, and he begrudgingly made his way to the table. 

Ivar sat himself down as smoothly as he could, his nerves causing him to become rigid just from the memories alone. 

"Why are we here." Ivar was quick to get to the point. He didn't like sigurd, and sigurd most certainly didn't like him, so there had better be a good reason for him to have been dragged here. 

"We need to talk about val." His brother's face was blank, betraying nothing, but there was something hidden in his eyes. Was that sadness? 

Ivar was a bit taken aback, why were they here to talk about Valerie?

"What about her?" He tried to make himself seem uninterested, and was hoping he sold it. He'd be damned if he let sigurd get a reaction out of him. 

"Listen, I know this whole freydis thing is probably throwing you for a loop, and you're probably surprised someone like Val would actually sleep with you-" sigurd was glaring now, and ivar matched him with his own, his fists balling up under the table.

"But you really should stay away from her. We don't like each other, but I'm not interested in watching either of you get hurt. It's bad business."

Ivar rolled his jaw, cocking his head to the side and giving a small chuckle.

" you're telling me, that you dragged me here, to say a hookup is bad for buisness? You must really be stupid!" Ivar couldn't stop the angry laughter that was now pouring out of him. 

"You think I give a fuck about her? Because I don't dear brother. It was sex, nothing more, nothing less. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going home. Don't forget to go fuck yourself."   
Ivar stood up, loudly shoving the chair out from behind him and making his way to leave.

"I know she reminds you of Anastasia."

Ivar stopped, but he didn't turn to face his brother. He could feel his face cracking, and he'll be damned if he showed him any weakness.

"I also know that its eating you to see her run off with hvitserk after you- just like Ana did. I figured bringing you here might jog your memory.  
Do us all a favor, forget about her."

Ivar could feel the tears well up, but he couldn't tell if it was rage or the overwhelming sadness of how right he was. Either way. He wouldn't let sigurd win. He took a breath and continued to leave.

Sigurd watch ivars figure blend in with the other bodies of the downtown street before disappearing completely. He put his head in his hands and took a deep breath, opting for a cigarette after all of this. He needed to protect her, he wished things could be different, but ana was safer away from them, and he didn't know that ivar would survive inevitably losing her again.   
He took a long drag and shook his head. why could there be no right thing to do in this situation? He wanted this to be easy, and it was everything but. 

He stood up and shook out his flaxen hair before slipping a bill on the table for the untouched coffees and made his way onto the street.   
He faltered in his step, feeling his phone vibrating in his pocket. Sigurd sighed and pulled it out.

"Hello?" He asked with a huff. He hadn't even bothered to look at the caller id.

"Come home, we need to talk." It was aslaug. Sigurd stayed silent, confused and alarmed with his mother's tone.

" I'm on my way."

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

"So what's up with you and my brother?" 

Val looked over her shoulder as she was putting her clothes back on, the man on her bed still naked as the day he was born, only slightly covered by the bedsheets. 

"What do you mean?" She walked over to the dresser grabbing a few things out of the top drawer before making her way back over to the bed.

"Well, you hooked up with him, and we just hooked up, wasn't sure if his breaking up with freydis had anything to do with that." He eyed her, his face playful but his eyes had something more behind them. She just stared at him before looking back to the joint she was rolling.

"Hey, just trying to be a good brother, I don't want to be in the middle of anything." He rolled into her side, giving her arm a playful bite.

"Theres nothing between us-" she lied, focusing intently on her hands.  
"It was a weird, spur of the moment thing since he decided he wanted to snoop through my flat. And-"  
She lit the joint, taking a large puff.  
"I can't help but enjoy making a bit of a wave every now and then."

She exhaled and hvitserk giggled, taking the joint from her fingers. He took a puff of his own and sat up next to her.

"So is this also a 'spur of the moment' thing? Or do you just invite any man to your bed?" He asked, eyeing her.

Val tried not to let her face betray her- once upon a time, that statement would've been true, but she was working hard to not regress back to who she once was, and was trying to be the best 'Valerie Moreau' she could muster.

"Do you want this to be just a spurr of the moment thing?" She pushed him over and straddled him again, stealing the joint back.  
Hvitserk just stared at her, his eyes squinted and red, his grin as wide as it could get. 

"I definitely wouldn't mind making this a regular thing." He ran his hands up and down her sides, staring up at her with that beautiful smile he had. 

Val couldn't help herself from smiling back at him. She missed him. She missed all of them. Gods, in another life she could've still been with him and his brothers, like nothing had ever happened. 

"Let me see you again." He said softly. Whatever walls he had up had slowly left his eyes, and he stared at her in nothing but pure adoration. Val couldn't stop herself from meeting his gaze, there he is. there's the boy she remembered all too fondly. Her precious hvitserk was still in there somewhere. 

She leant down and gave him a kiss, sweet and slow before pulling back up to look at him. She cursed herself for not being strong enough to stay away from them, that family. They would be the death of her, she thought, before going back down for another kiss.

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

Sigurd sat in his chair and watched his mother pace back and forth in his room. Her eyes were wide, but she refused to talk. She would look to him, but then look back at the floor and continue pacing. 

"Just spit it out mother, what's going on?" Sigurd said, his patience was running a bit thin, but he didn't want to get frustrated or raise his voice to her when she was like this. 

"Sigurd, this is bad." Was all she said before she continued her pacing .

"What's bad?" But the woman showed no signs of stopping. He stood up and grabbed her hand, she jolted a bit from his touch, but instantly relaxed. He sat her down on his bed and hugged her. Even if they weren't close, he still cared for her, whatever this was, it was truly affecting her. 

She took a few breaths, trying to compose herself before she finally started speaking again. 

"Sig?" She whispered.

"Yes mother?" He whispered back. 

"You remember those ancestry things I had you and your brother take?" She asked, her voice waivering slightly. 

"Yes?" Sigurd was confused, what could be so terrible about those?

"I lied."

Sigurd stayed quiet, giving his mother another moment to compose herself before continuing.

"I tracked down as many of the men from before as I could, asking floki to go through yidu's old clientele. Most of them were already in the police data base so it didn't take much." Sigurd felt his mother's body begin to shake again, trying to hold back sobs.

"Mother, what's that got to do with the ancestry tests?" He held her just a little tighter. Whether it was out of comfort or apprehension he wasn't sure.  
Aslaug gave out a small sob, before trying to contain them again.

"I lied. They weren't for the ancestry kits. I paid helga to test them against Alexei."

Sigurd stilled. Ana's son? Why would she do that?

"I wanted to give her some sort of closure, maybe find out who the father was would help her cope in some odd way ya know? And she was with all of you at some point. Maybe it would be better than not knowing. But-"

"But what mom?!" He pulled away from her, forcing her to look at him.   
It was as if a flood gate had opened, his mother couldn't stop the tears from flowing.

"Its ivars!" She sniffed up her tears and grabbed sigurd.

"What are we supposed to do, what are we supposed to tell her, tell him?!"

"Tell who what?"

They both turned around, eyes wide, when did ivar get here?

"Darling! How long have you been there?" Aslaug quickly composed herself and strode over to start preening her youngest son.

"I just walked in-" ivar said with a bit of confusion and some mistrust.  
"I went to grab more pain meds and heard you crying, I came to check on you." He said, a bit softer than before. He grabbed his mother instinctively.

"Oh, my sweet ivar, you've always been too good to me." Aslaug gave him that motherly smile of hers and grabbed his shoulder.   
"Come on darling, let's play a round of chess, hmm?"  
And with that aslaug and ivar left, but not without a venomous scowl directed toward sigurd as the youngest went to shut the door behind him.

Jesus christ, this day just keeps going from bad to worse.   
Sigurd let out a frustrated scream as he threw himself back onto his bed. 'Forget ivar, what in the fuck am I supposed to tell ana? Should I tell ana?


	14. Mistakes

Chapter 13

Ivar watched as hvitserk downed another beer, giving a small cough as he threw the empty can onto the table. He had been in a bad mood for the past few days, and even when ubbe suggested a get together between the three of them since sigurd was busy, his mood stayed sour.

"Brother, what's bothering you?" Ubbe piped up, his arms wrapped around the back of the couch.

"Nothing" hvitserk grumbled. Ubbe unconvinced, pressed on.

"This can't be nothing, you've been a dick the past few days." He eyed his brother.  
"I know you too well, quit lying."

Hvitserk huffed and reached over beside him to grab another beer. He cracked it open and took a long gulp before sighing and giving in to his brother. 

"Its val." Was all he said, giving an angry sniff before wiping his face.

"What about val?" Ubbe prompted.

"She doesn't want me." He took another swig of his beer.  
"Or at least, that's how I took it.  
We go on dates, we hang out, we talk, I feel like I've known her forever. Hell, I barely even look at Margarethe anymore ya know? I really like her, and she doesn't want to get serious."  
Hvitserk threw himself back into his chair and threw his arm up into the air, defeated.

Ivar for once didn't want to make fun of his brother, he was actually interested in what he had to say. Not because he cared that this girl was hurting him or out of brotherly love, but because he himself was still curious as to Val's feelings and motives. He quietly sipped at his own beer, listening to his older brothers talk.

"Maybe she's not ready for that next step hvitserk, you can't rush a woman in most anything they do." Ubbe tried to reason.

"But she won't even stop seeing other people!" Hvitserk all but screamed.  
"I thought I'd be ok with the 'open relationship thing', or the no strings attached - but we do so much more together than just have sex. I just don't understand how she can act like this!" 

Ivars eyebrows raised, maybe he would interject. 

"Do you know who else she's seeing?" Ivar asked, leaning forward only slightly. He didn't want hvitserk to think he was too interested in the answer.

"No! All she does is laugh, and then act like I never asked in the first place!" Hvitserk was so upset his beer can was now empty and crushed under his grip.

Ivar sat back and couldn't help the small smirk that he was hiding behind his beer. He felt bad for his brother, but he found it very interesting that she had hidden the fact that they themselves were still hooking up from him. However he now felt the same rage hvitserk was currently going through welling up and rearing its ugly head. He knew she was seeing him, but were there more that he wasnt aware of? Was she playing the same game with his brother with him as well? Ivar quickly lost his smirk and it was replaced with his own sour face. 

"And just to add insult to injury, she said she already had a date to the gala!" Hvitserk yelled again.

He didn't even try to listen to what else his brothers were saying, lost in his thoughts. He never mentioned the fact that he still showed up to vals apartment just about as frequently as his brother had, and it seems she didn't mention that either. However what was bugging him was that he knew for a fact that he isn't the date being mentioned, which means between the two of them there is somehow another person taking up her time, which is almost inconceivable. 

But what bugged ivar the most was the fact that hvitserk wasnt just sex, or at least that's how its sounding. He and val would share in a few conversations or a comfortable post sex silence, but he was always quick to leave, and she was even quicker to hurry him out. Was it his fault they didn't have a connection the way she and hvitserk did? Was he just a fuck to her? Is that why she hasn't mentioned the fact that she's banging his brother, or is she keeping it hush hush for the same reasons he had been? 

Ivars own mood became just as livid very quickly, but with a sly smile he offered an idea to his brothers.

"Should we find out who her date is?"

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

"Nobody saw you come did they?" Val had asked, hurrying sigurd inside and checking to see if anyone else was in the hallways. 

"No, and even if they did I doubt they'd recognize me." Sigurd smiled, taking off his hood and his sun glasses.

"And-my brothers are all tied up with each other tonight so there's nothing to be worried about."   
Val gave sigurd a hug, squeezing him tightly to her. God, it had been so long since she had had a real friend, an actual friend who wanted nothing more than her time and company 

They sat and just talked - Alexei running around and of course asking as many questions as his small sentences could muster, catching up with each other about the years they had missed, and of course gossiping here and there about drama. Eventually the night had came, the toddler put to bed, and sigurd couldnt help but bring up something he knew he probably shouldnt.

"So, ana-"

"So, sigurd" she giggled back to him. He couldn't smile back though.

"What's going on? With hvitserk and ivar I mean." He asked as gently as he could, he didn't want the question to come off as a confrontation, but he knew this song and dance already, and it didn't end well in the past.  
She looked down and scoffed, running her fingers through her fiery locks and away from her face.

"Honestly sigurd, I dont know. I love them both, but you probably know as well as I do my true feelings."   
She sighed and threw herself back against the couch.  
"I dont want to hurt ivar, but I can't seem to stay away from him. And I love hvitserk too- it's different with him and I. I'm not scared of hurting him again, inevitably. Ivar though, I dont know that he ever came back from me, and I dont know that he'd be able to handle it a second time." 

Valerie looked down at her hands, fiddling with the ring she had on her fingers.

"You know, I think he deserves better than me. Were all grown now, we've all changed, but at our core were the same people. I know me and I know him, I'd rather hurt him now a little bit, than crush him later." 

She and sigurd sat in silence for a while, she didn't know what else to say, and he knew she was right.  
Sigurd eventually broke their silence.

"What do you mean 'again'?"  
Everyone knew that he and ivar weren't close by any mean, but he also knew Ana's devotion to his brother, as odd and unusual as it was.  
She gave a sad grin, turning towards him, but refusing to look at him.

"You know how I am, my own issues are hard enough, and they hurt everyone around me too- but I'm also thinking about going back to the states. Harald isn't happy with my 'involvement' as he put it, and seems to think I'll turn on him like I did with ragnar." She gave a spiteful laugh.

"You had reason to turn on father though Ana! Why would you betray harald?" Sigurd seemed dumbfounded by her statement. Surely harald understood her viewpoint?

"Because he knows I love all of you. And he now sees that I can't keep my distance. It's bad for buisness."  
He didn't know what to say, and this was an issue he couldn't fix with just words alone, so he left it at that.

"If you go, at least keep in touch?" He questioned. He knew her reasons for disappearing before, but he hoped she wouldn't just erase herself a second time.

"Of course." She leaned into him and grabbed his arm, and in return he kissed the top of her hair, bringing an arm around and holding her close to him.  
They sat like that for only a few seconds before there was a knock at her door.  
They both jumped and quickly separated, exchanging worried looks between each other. 

"Shit, shit, shit!" She hissed to herself as if it was a mantra.  
She got up and looked through the peep hole.  
Low and fucking behold, the other ragnarssons were on the other side of her door.

'Who is it' sigurd mouthed, seeing Ana start to panic a bit at the door.

"Your fucking brothers!" She half yelled half whispered.  
She started shooing at the blonde boy, prompting him to hide as she got ready to open the door.  
Once sigurd was down the hall and in her room, she took a breath and opened the door, only slightly enough to stick her head out.

"Hey, its after 9, what do you want?" She tried to sound confident and no nonsense, while trying to not come off entirely bitchy. The smell of beer and cigarettes hit her nose immediately.

"Hey babe!" Hvitserk cooed at her, but it was more sarcastic than anything.  
"Why dont you invite your boyfriend and his brothers in?" To anybody around the hall he may have sounded innocent, but she knew better than that. 

"What do you want hvitserk?" She didn't care how she came across this time.

"Is that anyway to treat the man who has his cock in you most of your free time?"  
Hvitserk didn't even give her a second to respond before he had his hand around the door and forced himself inside, his brothers following suit.

Valerie growled and walked right up to hvitserk, almost nose to nose.

"My child is asleep, and I'm not dealing with this shit right now. Get. Out." She hissed, pushing him backwards. Hvitserk stumbled into ubbe, and while he could usually keep his head on straight in his drunken state, he was too angry and hurt to care about the current situation.

"Not until you tell me who else you're fucking!" He yelled, pushing himself back up and getting into her face just as she did him.  
She laughed. Jesus christ, he really wanted a fight tonight didn't he?

"You're drunk hvitserk, leave." Maybe she could reason with him.  
Hvitserk started giggling and mumbling to himself, walking around her flat trying to look for any clues as to who may or may not have been there.   
She looked over to ivar before ubbe began to apologize to her, trying to wrangle the other brother up.

Hvitserk pushed ubbe off of him and stood still for what seemed like minutes, just staring at her coffee table.   
'Oh fuck me' val thought to herself. She looked at the table and saw exactly what he did, two glasses.   
All the brother stopped and looked to her.

"Are you gonna fess up? Or am I going to have to make a scene Valerie?" Hvitserk hissed, he tone was lowered but she knew he was a loaded gun now.

"Hvitserk, can we do this another time? My kids in the other room. Please, this is my last warning." She crossed her arms and stared at him.

"Or fucking what val? You'll just keep sleeping around regardless of my feeling right? You'll just throw some pussy to whatever dog is begging right? You know you've got some nerve to do this to a fucking ragnarsson!" He snarled at her.

"Jesus christ! I told you that I didn't want anything besides sex from you hvitserk, dont blame me. Do you really want me to hurt your fucking feelings? Huh, do you? Because I can tell you exactly who else has been in my bed lately, and I promise you it's going to be worse knowing." She couldn't help the angry laughter that poured out of her.

She looked over her shoulder at the dark haired man who was conveniently still standing by the door, and he looked as if he'd seen a ghost.   
"Or has he not told you himself?" Val asked, venom lacing her question.

Hvitserk eyes went wide before he lunged for Valerie, they fell down onto the floor.

"WHO IS HE" Hvitserk screamed in her face, pining her down. Spit flew from his snarling mouth as he looked down at her.  
Before Valerie could say anything, her bedroom door flew open and footsteps came running down the hallway.  
She felt the weight being thrown off of her and saw sigurd manhandling hvitserk and pushing him into ubbe. 

Ivar and uber's eyes were both as wide as saucers, seeing their other brother coming out of the womans bedroom.

"You're fucking sigurd!" Hvitserk said in disbelief before trying to get out of ubbe's grip, luckily the oldest was too strong for a drunk hvitserk. 

"No I'm not, but i was with ivar."  
All eyes now turned to the youngest, who for once was silent.  
"And now I'm finished with both of you, get the fuck out." She grabbed the door and flung it open, letting ubbe drag a screaming hvitserk out before she grabbed ivars coat and pulled him in close to her.

"Too bad cripple, we were having such fun too." And with that she flung him out into the hallway to follow his other brothers.

Val let out and angry huff and waited as sigurd sauntered out of the door, obviously the night not going how any of them expected.

"Hey-" he said quietly, standing in the frame of the door.  
"Theres one more thing I needed to tell you. Aslaug got the DNA results."  
Before Val could even take a breath to reply the blonde boy cut her off.  
"Im not going to say anything, just that there is a match, and that it's up to you if you want to know."  
He handed her a folded slip of paper, and immediately walked away, leaving her alone with the absolute shit show of a night.

"Mommy, who yelling?"  
She turned around to see her son in the hallway rubbing his eyes, having just woken up.

"Just the neighbours baby, come on, let's go back to bed."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment if you're enjoying the story!


	15. Gala part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The bolded words are in Russian, fyi
> 
> Also if you are interested in her makeup or dress these were closest to what I had imagined for our lovely OC
> 
> https://images.app.goo.gl/PQrCWhjS3hu1P7dn8
> 
> https://images.app.goo.gl/kZoZAFfskLCrkpzJ9

Chapter 14 gala part 1

The boys were all on the street, their only light from street lamps and cars.

"What the actual fuck ivar? You know I was trying to be serious with her and you kept fucking her too! You just have to have everything you want dont you, you spoiled fuck!" Hvitserk screeched, pushing ivar against a light pole.

"Well, if I recall, she didn't tell you either - AND she didn't want anything serious. Maybe the cripple was justa a better fuck brother, hmm?" Ivar hissed back, trying to egg his brother on.

They both looked over as they heard the doors to the apartment complex open, and sigurd walking out .

"And you! What the fuck were YOU doing there?!" Hvitserk boomed, now focusing his rage on his other brother.

"Just a friendly chat, some buisness, nothing like what you two were doing." sigurd was too tired for a fight, he just wanted to get home.

"Well that's fucking rich! You just happen to be there, and cancel on us for the girl were both happen to be fucking? Are YOU her fucking date?" Hvitserk laughed, then looked over his shoulder.

" what about you Ubbe, you hitting it too?" He couldn't stop the sobbing laughter that was tearing through him.  
"Wow, who would've fucking guessed, one girl, and all of the brothers? It's like maragarethe, or fucking Anastasia!"  
Hvitserk stumbled over to another light pole a few feet away and slumped down. The brothers couldn't tell anymore if he was laughing or crying.

"Jesus christ, that what my fucking problem is! I found another fucking Ana!"  
Sigurd tensed up, but the other two brothers were currently focused on the one having a melt down.  
They watched their brother wipe away a few tears before standing back up, ubbe approached him, trying to console his brother, but hvitserk just shoved him off.

"Dont touch me, let's just go home."  
They all walked home in silence.

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

Ivar laid in his childhood bed, the Gala was finally nearing, tomorrow night they would be sitting with all the wealthiest names the country had to offer. Everyone who was anyone would be there, and of course would be staying at the hotel where it was being held to conduct some 'after hours' buisness and affairs. Ivar hated going and would always try to get out of it, but to no avail. He couldn't stop thinking about her, about Val, about what hvitserk said.

Was that why he was so attracted to her? Because she reminded him so much of Ana? He had never made any conscious thought or connections to it, but it made a lot of sense. They looked similar, acted similar, shit - they even had the same fucked up behaviours. He hated her for it.  
What he hated the most was the fact that whenever he could see his precious Ana in his dreams, his Ana, she was replaced with Valerie. It just grew his hatred for her even more. She stole away his brothers from him, and now she was stealing what little memories he had of the only woman he thought he would ever love.

He couldnt deal with this anymore, and so he got up. 'I need a fucking cigarette'.  
Ivar made his way down the stairs begrudgingly, his legs never making it easy for him. As he made his way to the patio, he saw hvitserk was already out there, smokes in hand.  
His back was to ivar, but his head turned slightly at the sound of the patio door opening.

"Coukdnt sleep?"his brother mumbled, obviously not actually interested in making conversation.  
Ivar grunted his affirmation and grabbed at the pack next to his brother and lighting his own.  
They sat like that for a while in silence, neither saying a word to the other.

"You see it too, right?" Hvitserk whispered so low, ivar almost didn't catch what he said.

"Yeah, I do." He said back just as quietly. They both grabbed another cigarette.

"Man, I just - I feel so guilty. Everytime I look at her, everytime I'm with her, it feels like Ana all over again." His brother tried to contain a small sob.  
"But I feel like it's so wrong of me to feel like that with her, like I'm replacing Ana with her- but I can't stay away either." A sniffle escaped the older man.

It was quiet for a long time before ivar finally replied.  
" I feel it too...sometimes when I see an old photo of her, or dream of her, I see val instead. "

Hvitsek let out a scoff, and looked at his younger brother through his hair.  
" at least it's not just me."

They sat again in silence till they finally made their way back inside, they had a gala to get ready for tomorrow.

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

"You look gorgeous!"Astrid cooed, laying the last curl down gently behind Val's back.  
She stood up to appraise the older woman work.

"You think so?"  
Valerie eyed herself down carefully -her emerald green dress and eye makeup made her feel like a movie star. It was so odd for her to see herself like this, she never really put much effort into anything she did with her appearance, and she thanked the gods for Astrid and her makeup skills.  
She was still staring at herself in the mirror, turning in different directions to see how she looked from all angles before she heard a giggle.

"Pretty mommy!"

She quickly turned to see her son running into the room - harald, halfdan, and Bjorn only a few steps behind.  
The little boy immediately clung to her leg, staring up at her in awe.

"You look very handsome Alexei! Who did your hair?" She looked at her son with the most adoration humanly possible. He looked so dapper in his tiny tuxedo and his chocolate hair braided intricately on the top and pulled back into a tight tail.

"You can thank bjorn for the braids, and might I say how beautiful you look. My wife did a good job with you!" Harald approached them, clapping a hand on Val's shoulder.  
She threw bjorn a look thanking him, which he nodded back his own 'you're welcome', then she looked back up to her boss.  
He leaned down to her ear and whispered into it.

"I'm glad to hear you're no longer involved with the lothbrooks, for a minute there you were really trying my patience. Let's not have any other mishaps." And just as quickly as he whispered it to her, he left her side to be with his wife.  
She was thrown off for a second. She knew harald had no real love for anyone besides halfdan, but that sounded like a threat to her. She quickly shook it off, opting to ignore the comment and enjoy the night instead.

"Is my date ready to hit the road? We've got a party to go to don't we baby?" She knelt down to her toddler, who was currently running around and complaining about how he couldn't jump as high in his tuxedo.

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

Ivar sat at the table with his family, the gala would start soon and people were finally filling into their seats after greeting and mingling before the event actually started. He couldnt help the scowl on his face. He hated most everybody here, and seeing lagertha, and the lack of Valerie so far just added to his awful mood.  
Still lost in thought, ivar was alerted by a hit to his chest. He jolted up and looked over to see his brother ubbe pointing at a table not too far off.  
There was a booster seat? At the gala?  
Just as quickly as he had spotted the chair, he saw Astrid and Bjorn sit at the table with a toddler in tow.

He immediately heard hvitserk let out a loud sigh. The realization both hit them that Val's date was her son, and that they both really screwed up with the stunt they pulled. Hvitserk rested his head in his hands and ivar felt as if he had somehow gotten smaller.

The lights dimmed and the stage lit up. Everybody's attention was on the stage and the people standing on it.  
Harald began a speech, and then his father, and then a few more people. Ivars attention wasnt on them though, it was on the woman who stood off to the sidelines awaiting her turn to speak.

Gods she was beautiful. She looked like a goddess.  
Ivar felt his mouth turn dry and if he didn't know any better, he would swear his stare was burning a hole through her.  
Her dress was regal, with just a touch of sexy - showing off her long legs through a slit, her hair was lightly curled, enough to still look natural without being overdone, and her eyes. Odis beard her eyes- even from his seat they seemed to sparkle in that way only hers could.

There was clapping, and it broke him from his trance. He watched as the woman seemingly floated to the podium. He felt as if his heart stopped, and yet it was beating so fast he couldn't even hear a word she was saying over the pounding in his ears. And just like that, more clapping and she was gone.  
More people continued to speak but ivar paid them no mind. He knew he must have looked pathetic, he kept trying to search for her, he knew she would be coming to the table at some point or another, she was the only one missing from it at this point.

But another 5 minutes had passed and she was nowhere to be found. He looked back to the table, the young boy now visibly upset and looking for his mother, haralds wife and brother both trying to distract and console the boy. Where could she be?

● ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ●

Ana felt as if she was sweating bullets. She felt as if her persona would crumble under the spot light and the gaze of the hundreds of people in attendance for the charity even. 'Stupid fucking gala' she thought to herself. She could keep her cool under the barrel of a gun or even with fists beating against her, but this was a different kind of terror she was not used to.  
She made her speech, charity this, raise money that, peace, blah blah blah. She had rehearsed so many times she wondered if she sounded like a robot to the crowd before her.  
And just as quickly as she had been under the scrutiny of the crowd, she was able to leave it.

She had found the lothbrook table was not far from her own table, but she made sure to keep her eyes away from them. Being within the vicinity of ragnar was more than enough of them for the night. She tried to only stare at her baby boy, and his gorgeous little face. 'I did a good job' she thought to herself, a small smile creeping into her face as she gazed at him from across the room.

She made her way off of the stage and towards the back end to leave before she was stopped. A man walked out from the side of the stage and grabbed her.  
She jumped and immediately went to punch whoever had yanked her away from any prying eyes but was put into a choke hold- one arm around her neck and the other holding tight to the arm she had used to throw her punch.

" **Hello darling"**  
She froze immediately, she wanted to move but her body wouldn't listen.  
'Oh my god, its him.'

" **What, cat got your tongue**?" The man laughed and slowly relaxed his grip.

" **I'm going to let you go. And you're not going to run, and you're not going to talk, yes? It would be a shame if that little boy had an accident tonight."**

She tried so hard to breathe, and yet her body was still gripped by the terror, she couldn't even will her lungs to work.  
The man finally released her and slowly turned her around, throwing a lock of disheveled hair back behind her shoulder.

" **What are you doing here oleg?** " She whispered.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing, would love any feed back!


End file.
